“Um… the crow what-now?”

That was my first thought once I heard the name. Seriously? I’ve had my suspicions due to the recent titles I’ve seen on the stat menu, but this is the most eighth-grade-syndrome-y sounding title I’ve heard so far.

“…The Crow Herald. One of the Order Masters of the Serpent’s Shadow and the owner of the Corvian Wire, a powerful artifact weapon that shapes the darkness like living blades. He is… also my mentor… and is… was… my master. He goes by the name… Korvo.”

He gets an edgy crow-based name to go with it too. I bet his personality’s also gonna be all dark and broody with a touch of coldness… Hold up, did she just say he has an artifact weapon? In that case, if I do beat this guy, I’ll finally have a replacement for Ichaival!

After that time when I sort of fired off a sun… Yeah well… it paid one hell of a price. According to Kholdrum, I damaged its magic core… which just happens to be a piece of the World Tree.

…That’s right, this world has a World Tree. And being safeguarded by the Elves no less… but that’s a topic for another time.

“Master… if we’re to face Korvo… you’ll need my assistance. He taught me all I know… and made me what I am… thanks to that, I know most of his tricks. Therefore I… I want to help.”

Vai looked down depressingly as she mumbled those last words. This girl… please stop making me feel worse than I already do.

“Now that we have… our answers… Camus, your call?”

Arwen called my attention as she looks at me expectantly. What much choice do I have? I already did what I did, and it won’t change anything even if I feel bad about it. I might as well take her along so she doesn’t have to feel worse than she already does for some reason. That’s of course also because she knows her way around the temple as well as how to fight the crow-guy.

“Let’s go… and Vai… you can tag along.”

Her ears immediately perk up as she nods in an enthusiastic way. She honestly looked cute when she smiled as she perked up to lead the way. Well, even if Ellen expected it, I feel like I still have some explaining to do. For now, I’ll see how things go from here.

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In the Adventurer’s Guild, Sorena is being led by Margaret towards the Guild Head’s office.

*knock* *knock* “Sir Furen, I’ve brought Madame Sorena.” said Margaret as she spoke through the door.

“Ah, come in, come in.” replied a kindly old voice.

But before Margaret opened the door, she and Sorena nodded at each other as if in acknowledgement then stood to the side as they opened it.

Suddenly out jumped an old man with a long grey beard and a bald head making a grab at the air in an attempt at an aerial bear hug.

“Wha-!? *smack* Gack!”

In a practiced manner, Margaret brought down a chop of judgment onto the old man’s head.

“I see you’re still up to your old tricks, you old letch.” said Sorena as she crossed her arms while watching on the side.

“My my, I see you’re as fiery and buxom as usual, dear Sorena. What a pleasant surprise for you to visit.” said the old man, Furen, as he stood and brushed off his sleeves. “Oh, that reminds me, there was an interesting adventurer who was asking about your Pavilion a while back. Have you met with him?”

“Indeed, I have, which brings me here with urgent news.”

Furen raised an eyebrow at her statement and gestured for her to come into his office, all thoughts of mischief gone from his expression. “Well then, tell me… does it have much to do with our missing Margrave?” he asked as he took a seat on a couch.

“Not only that… but also a situation much MUCH worse.” Sorena began as she took a seat opposite of him.

Furen calmly listened, but as Sorena explained further, his expression continued to grow grim. After he understood the general idea, he immediately told Margaret to assemble as many of the Adventurers currently available.

“For bringing this to our attention, I thank you Sorena… but I can only pray that we’re not too late. The Devils… how long has it been since we’ve faced their horrors.”

Sorena nodded in acknowledgement with her thoughts back to the young dragon who may very well be their hope.

While her thoughts lingered, a sudden explosion from outside brought her to attention.

*Boom!*

“!!”

“What the gods?” Furen stood as he exclaimed and looked outside the windows. A huge plume of smoke appeared on the horizon, tearing high into the sky as if a great fire surged beneath it.

“That’s… coming from the Church of Dominion!” Sorena cried as she quickly ran out the office and made for the direction of the grey plume.

====================================================================================

“Um… Master… was that… truly necessary?”

Asked Vai with a dumbfounded expression as she saw the glorious result of my ingenious plans.

“…to be honest, it seemed like a smart idea at the start, but… I honestly didn’t expect this… much.”

Basically, since we’re going to be sneaking into the temple, I thought a distraction would help, so I decided to plant one of my ‘bombs’ made from Agronite ore onto the opposite end of the temple.

The result was… cataclysmic…

Honestly, how was I supposed to know that a few grams of the stuff are equivalent to around 20 tons of dynamite? Alright, so maybe I should’ve done more testing, but at least I made sure to do it in an area where there weren’t any people around.

It ended up blowing almost half the temple, but thankfully I sensed that the place was mostly empty and I wasn’t gonna do it if there were actually people. Not sure if this was on purpose, or if it’s just every priest’s off day, but it definitely clears my conscience. Now the only problem is… I ended up scaring every damn hornet that was hiding into our direction.

“Camus… I presume.”

Correction… not surrounded by damned hornets… but by a freaking murder of crows… minus the one wearing the gold bird mask, everyone seems dressed up like a damned black bird in a ninja suit. Rather than make them feel more intimidating, it feels like I’m surrounded by weebs in an edgy furry – feathery? – convention.

“To think you’d be so bold as to tear down the entire temple… not a bad plan… but unfortunately, it seems your little explosive has failed.”

No no no! I wasn’t trying to blow the place up! I know what it looks like but it’s not like I tried to do it on purpose!

“It also seems you’ve managed to tame one of my Fangs after tearing it off… a shame since she was my favorite… but no matter… useless pieces of meat will be thrown away… and this place shall be your grave.”

*twitch*

Somehow that comment of his towards Vel really pissed me off. I took a side-glance at her and see her face expressionless… but her hands are shaking.

I’ve decided… it’s time to murder some crows!