By the time we made it to the guild, everyone was already waiting for us. And because we were holding hands, the girls were giggling and Lux started to blush once again. She tried to hide behind me to escape the embarrassment.

They were all dressed in casual clothing, compared to the usual armor that we had saw them in previously. The guys were wearing pants and short sleeve shirts, while the girls matched in grey tops and blue shirts.

“You two finally ready to go?” Maximus asked us, and the giggling started to die down.

“Finally? How long were you waiting?”

“Around 20 minutes. It can’t be helped I guess, we never set a definite time to get here anyway.”

“Let me just finish this quest and we’ll be off.” I went to talk to the old man. He was just sitting there like always. The mission this time was to hunt down a few minotaurs. I handed him the horns of the minotaurs and he smiled and accepted it. After a second, he said something extremely casually. “Congratulations on becoming C ranked adventurers.”

I looked over at the puzzled group that was about to show us around. Ruby was the first to say something. “Hey, uh, how long have you been adventurers?”

“A few weeks give or take. Why?” I didn’t understand why there was an issue. Until a gloomy look came across their face, I thought that there was nothing really wrong to begin with.

“So in a few weeks, you’ve already become C ranked adventurers.” It was as if Maximus was going to die of humiliation right there. “It took us almost 2 years to get that far. The rate of which you’re ranking up is actually scary. Then again seeing as you have combat experience already I guess it’s only natural.”

Oh, that’s right. I guess people only start to begin their real combat experience when they first become adventurers. It would make sense that killing 10 goblins would be difficult to them when they’re walking around basically blind in the forever dark labyrinth, with little knowledge of their surroundings. It could take a few days just to locate the number they needed if they were being careful not to get ambushed.

Lux and I on the other hand, simply walked through and destroyed the targets that needed to be killed and that was that. We could maybe do 2 tasks per day, and we thought we were avoiding suspicion. It was only natural that we completed a single task a day. For most people, I guess, they would take a few days to a few weeks per task. If I were in the same position I guess I would find it hard to believe as well.

“Well, I guess we’d better get going.” We headed out into the city. The streets were full of people who were generally happy to be there. Minus the screaming child here and there, along with the annoyed parents, most of the citizens had smiles on their faces. It was something that I wasn’t used to.

It seems that there was almost no poverty, and all the shops had a good amount of customers. They showed us around the shops that generally were used a lot. Such as blacksmiths for armor and weapons, a general store for basic goods, and a bunch of places to eat.

Although neither of us would ever need a new weapon, or set of armor, the general store and restaurants were rather good things to have knowledge of. We wouldn’t be telling them that our armors were forever bound to us, and self regenerating(slowly.) Also that our weapons are extremely special, and incredibly powerful.

The day went on as they showed us little things about the city, and things about themselves. They grew up here, so naturally they knew every street like the back of their hands. Where they went to school, where they lived, where they hung out. They showed us everything. By the time we were well acquainted with the city, it was in the afternoon.

We were walking back to the guild, when Maximus asked something of me and Lux. “Would you two mind having a mock fight with us?” A mock fight? I would assume that it was something like group sparring. In that case it would be a good opportunity to see their group dynamic.

“Sure.” I’m not the one who answers that quickly, it’s Lux. I guess I didn’t have a choice to begin with, I’m just glad that this time it’s something we agree on.

They all smiled, and then Maximus told us the details. “We’ll meet back at the guild in an hour, after we’ve finished getting ready. I’d like to ask that you both come prepared as well. We plan on fighting with you as if our lives depended on it. Naturally there won’t be any lethal force involved. I hope you don’t pull your punches when you fight us.” After that we split. Lux and I just hung around town for an hour, looking at different things to buy.

We came across a stall that sold some jewelry. It wasn’t extremely expensive and we could afford it with the amount of money we’ve made from doing a bunch of missions. Lux’s eyes wandered around the stall and fell upon a pretty necklace. It had a black gemstone that shined red whenever the sunlight hit it, strung around a white chain. Seeing that her eyes lit up the second it came into her sight, I decided to buy it for her.

She gave me a kiss on the cheek and I put it on for her. It contrasted well with her hair and eyes and defined her beauty even more. We then headed towards the guild, and Lux was sporting a look of joy as we made our way there.

When we got there, we saw the group dressed up in the armor with weapons that we previously saw. They were prepared for a fight, while we looked the same. However they weren’t the slightest bit surprised by our appearance. Instead Virgil simply led the group out and said, “Let’s go.”

We followed them out of the city and to a nearby field that was void of people. It was quite peaceful. There were trees here and there, and the green grass covered every inch of land. The sun was starting to leave us as we stood across from each other, moments before the clash began. All of us just stood there silently, waiting for someone to make a move. Virgil was wielding a short spear and a shield, while Maximus brandished a broadsword that was about almost his height. The width was about the size of his forearm.

Maximus and Virgil were the first to charge, while Ruby and Amethyst fell back. I summoned Oblivion and intercepted both of them, as Lux maneuvered around them, drawing Excalibur and making her way towards the twins. Virgil looked to stop her from getting there when I repositioned myself in between them and her, making sure that they couldn’t get to her.

Maximus swung towards me and I saw Virgil out of the corner of my eye moving to attack me from the side once I block the swing. Instead of blocking I move towards Virgil and away from the slash, catching him off guard. I swung Oblivion with my right arm, forcing him to take it with his shield, and then immediately followed up by punching him in the stomach with my left arm. There was a small opening because he had to move his shield to his left side, since my sword was coming in from that direction. I left him with no time to react and sent him flying.

Maximus was already close to me, because I wasn’t focused on him he managed to sneak up on me and punch me in the side. It hurt, but there wasn’t enough force to move me. I went to sweep his legs and once my leg made contact with his, it was like I hit a brick wall. After failing, he kicked me away.

I had two options and losing wasn’t one of them. I could either reveal my magic, or my armor. I looked to what Lux was doing, and she had already been using her magic, since it’s her strongest offensive tool.

I guess I could as well, but since most of my magic was meant for killing I could only use Dark Domain or Dark Pulse. I wasn’t sure which one to use but I didn’t have enough time to ponder. Maximus was already in range to hit me again, and Virgil was moving towards Lux, in order to help the twins.

Dark Domain.

Everyone stopped for a moment, including Lux. Dark Domain was simply too overbearing to be ignored altogether. Trying to get refocused on the battle, they returned to their fighting and Virgil still went towards Lux, who was in the middle of manhandling the twins.

The daemon blood inside me was beginning to stir. I was enjoying the fight. My speed was increased by a vast amount in the domain. I got up and was in front of Virgil before I knew it, leaving both him and Maximus, who was about to deliver another kick, dumbfounded. I didn’t need to swing my sword, instead I picked him up by the neck, and threw him at Maximus. Maximus, didn’t dodge, as he was too shocked to move. While Virgil was only a little bit shorter than us, by no means should I have been able to toss him like a ragdoll.

The two collided and fell to the ground. Meanwhile Lux was in the middle of a magic battle with the twins. They were using fire and ice spells to try and attack her. She was using her light magic to block their spells, and started to restrain their movements more and more.

Seeing that they weren’t going to get up any time soon I closed the distance between Ruby and I before they had time to think. Lux readied her sword and closed the distance between her and Amethyst as well. Within a few seconds, we both had our sword points at their throats.

And that concluded the mock battle. Lux healed any injuries that they had sustained. “Where did you learn this magic?” Healing magic didn’t exist except for her own.

“I created it.” She said those words nonchalantly, and made their jaws drop. Creating a whole new type of magic, that hadn’t previously existed at all, was no small feat. I guess even Phoenix didn’t have any direct healing spells within their country.

After everyone was all healed up, they gathered and thanked us.

“Man your magic is just too scary Dusk. Everything got darker and it was really hard to move around at all.” Maximus didn’t know what to think of the Dark Domain.

“Don’t worry, the first time I encountered it I was suppressed by it and his extra strength so badly that I had no choice but to give up.” Lux chimed in, in an attempt to make him feel better.

“And when was this?”

“Around 3 years ago.”

They all suddenly got even more depressed. “We were still D ranked then..” After sighing one last time, they gave up on trying to compare to us. Instead they understood the disparity between us and then came up with a possible solution.

“Would you help us get stronger?”