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volume 2 upgrade specialist interval chapter 40 - surprising the guardians

after an awkward hour of sitting in silence, the large set of doors in the room opened. As they did, a feeling of dread entered my heart. Emerging from the room first was an exceedingly tall man. Even compared to me, he was a few feet taller.

Wearing simple brown shorts the rest of his body was left bare. Having light brown skin with rippling muscle's, his body screamed vitality. Sparsely dotted around his body were small patches of scarlet scales. To finalise his look he had a large pair of horns on his head. Almost 3 feet long and pointing behind him, the horns looked very impressive.

A few steps behind him was a woman. Wearing an intricate and rose tinted dress, she looked heavenly. Much like Alice, her body had a translucent quality to it. Adding to her looks both her face and figure were exquisite, like finely crafted jade. Adding the final touch to her ethereal form was the golden halo above her head.

Finally in the last place was Diogenes. Still wearing his rune inscribed cloak, his long silver hair draped over his shoulders. Out of the three of them, his ordinary humanoid form was the plainest.

These 3 were the guardians of the city. As Gareth had explained before, each neutral city had a representative of the three main guilds. These representatives would collectively govern the city.

Entering the room each of them walked towards one of the people outside. The scaled man to the rude man, the beautiful woman to the other woman and lastly Diogenes to me and Siegfried.

Seeing me with Siegfried, Diogenes face displayed surprise.

Diogenes: what a surprise, it is the little youngling I saved before. I imagine it was you who brought him?

He looked at Siegfried when he asked the question.

Siegfried: that is correct, I hope it is not an issue.

Based on the atmosphere of the conversation these two were close comrades.

Diogenes: there is no problem, after all, we just finished the monthly report. What better time than now is there for people to meet with me.

Turning to face the other two who left the room, Diogenes said his goodbye's.

Diogenes: fellow guardians, I will take my leave now.

Turning to walk out the room we were stopped.

Scaly man: hold on. I smell something odd.

Stopping us the man walked over. Seeing me he sent a questioning look towards Diogenes.

Diogenes: this is a friend of mine, is there an issue?

Ignoring Diogenes the man walked to stand before me. Being so close I got a real feel for his size. He was at least 2 foot taller than me, 5 if you counted the horns.

Even though he was ignored Diogenes did not make an issue out of it. Based on this the man was at least as strong as Diogenes.

Turning back to the rude man from before he spoke in dragon.

Scaly man: do you not smell the dragon on this one.

Rude man: I did, but I thought it was just his enhancement. Is there a problem?

Even while the two men were having a conversation in dragon tongue, the rest of the people stood there and waited.

Scaly man: the smell is not from the boy. His smell is the lizard and wolf one. The one on him is that of an elder dragon.

Being told it was from an Elder dragon, the rude man was instantly surprised.

Rude man: ELDER DRAGON!? THE DRAGONS THAT HAVE REACHED S RANK STRENGTH.

Having waited a while I spoke up, replying in dragon I hoped to clear up his confusion.

Solomon: I'm sorry to interrupt, but I can explain the smell.

Being able to recognise the scent of an elder dragon meant this man was extremely knowledgeable.

Scaly man: you speak dragon? How can a weakling like you speak the language?

Learning that I could speak the language the scaly man became slightly irritated. Contrary to his reaction, the rest of the people there were astonished. I never realised how rare it was to speak dragon.

Thinking back I remember Carbones speaking in broken dragon. At the time I never thought much of it, but now it seemed like understanding dragon tongue was rare.

Solomon: I was taught by an elder dragon, the same one you smell on me.

From the expression on his face, what I said was ludicrous.

Scaly man: DON’T LIE TO ME BOY, EVEN I COULD NOT LEARN FROM AN ELDER DRAGON. YOU BETTER TELL ME THE REAL REASON NOW!

Based on the raised voice he believed I lied to him.

Solomon: I'm sorry you think I'm lying. if you would allow me to explain, I could convince you?

scaly man: you better have a good explanation, or I'll cut your head off.

from there I made up a story about meeting Pluvia in my last mission. As I had managed to complete a hidden objective, I had been blessed with a reward, the dragon language. By mixing in elements of truth I managed to create a flawless story.

Scaly man: you're one lucky bastard. To get such a great reward. Though I still have doubts, that is enough to explain it. For now at least.

Talking in English again, the scaly man responded to Diogenes.

Scaly man: I smelt the scent of an elder dragon on him, as such I was curious. I'll take my leave now.

Jumping in the conversation, the ethereal woman spoke

Ethereal woman: I will also be on my way, best of luck Diogenes.

With a short sentence and small nod the woman also left.

Diogenes: so you speak dragon, huh? And by the sound of it better than Drake. How did you learn to speak it?

Placing the face with the name, I was sure to remember this Drake. In the future, he would be a person of interest.

Like before, I explained the fake story to them. Like Drake, as doubtful as they were, they accepted the story.

Diogenes: your very fortunate, anyway. Let's go to my office. We can get comfortable and talk in private There. I'm sure you didn't come just to say hi.

Solomon: I didn't, thank you for the opportunity. To spend time talking to me, I'm already very thankful to you.

As a key figure in the city, taking time out for me was a huge favour. Even if he took a liking to me.

After a short walk, we had made it to his office. A simple desk and computer, as well as lots of standard office equipment. In front of the desk were two chairs.

Diogenes: take a seat.

Settling into the left chair, I waited for Siegfried and Diogenes to be seated. When they had settled down I started speaking.

Solomon: I should introduce myself. Though we've met before I've never told you my name. I am Solomon. I've come today for two reasons, the first is to pay you back for your help.

Diogenes: HAHAHAHAHA, HA, HA, HAHAHA. So, sorry. I didn't mean to laugh. Please continue.

Like Siegfried, Diogenes had the same type of reaction. Was I really that comical?

Solomon: it's not a problem, anyway I recently came upon a few weapons, maybe you'd like them.

With the advance of my qi, my storage space in dragon's fire had grown, almost 10 times the size. With it came several sets of weapon rack. The weapons, though not G rank, were not far from it. Out of the 200 weapons, I had 150 were at this level. Other than that there were 40 at the lowest level of G rank. 8 of the remaining weapons were at the mid level of G rank. Being only slightly weaker than my own weapons. Lastly, the final two weapons were high G rank, equal to my own weapon. Out of them all, I was willing to give all of the weakest weapons, as well as half of the rest.

Pulling out one of the weakest swords, I held it to Diogenes. Seeing me make the sword appear Diogenes was surprised.

Diogenes: you already have an interspatial item. You really are full of surprises.

Solomon: interspatial item?

Though I knew he meant the space in dragons fire, I didn't think it was that special.

Diogenes: that's what we call, items that can store your equipment in another space. Usually, only F ranks have those sort of items. And even then it rarely exceeds 5 meters squared.

Hearing this I now understood a little more of dragon's fire's opness. At current the space in it was around 50 meters squared. Ten times the average F ranks. And according to Pluvia, it would only grow with my strength.

Solomon: oh, thank you for the explanation. Getting back to the topic I have lots of these.

Returning his attention to the weapon, Diogenes took it into his hands. After a few seconds, he shook his head.

Diogenes: I cannot accept this. With your strength even getting 1 weapon of this level is troublesome. I can't accept it.

Solomon: don't worry about this weak weapon. I have over a hundred of them.

Diogenes: ONE HUNDRED!?

Hearing that I had so many, he seemed astonished.

Diogenes: how did you get so many?

Solomon: I'm afraid I can't tell you. but you can rest assured they are not stolen.

Though I had confidence in my lie from before, I did not want to deceive if I didn't have to.

Solomon: either way I can give you 75 weapons like that. I also have 20 like this.

Once again taking out a weapon, I handed it to him. Holding the new one he was even more surprised.

Diogenes: this, this is a G rank weapon. Don't tell me you have stronger weapons than this?

Solomon: I do, I have 4 of this level that I'm willing to part with.

Once again I pulled out the next level up.

Though I didn't understand their shock, it was good for me. Showing that I had things to benefit them would help with the second reason I was here. Not to mention having an A rank ally would be extremely beneficial.

Diogenes: su, su, surely this is the best you have. R, right?

Solomon: well, I don’t really want to part with it, but the strongest weapon I can part with is this.

To put the final nail in the coffin I took out the weaker high G rank weapon. Though I could bare losing one. It would be better if it was the weaker one.

Holding the weapon in his hand, Diogenes began to tremble.

Diogenes: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, MY INTUITION WAS RIGHT. SIEGFRIED, WE'VE FOUND A GREAT TALENT.

Joining in, Siegfried was also ecstatic.

Siegfried: HAHAHAHAHA, YES WE HAVE. IT ONLY TOOK THE BETTER PART OF 50 YEARS.

After a few seconds of their borderline mad outburst, they settled back down. They still had yet to lose their excitement though.

Diogenes: sorry about that. Anyway, we have a proposal for you.

Solomon: a proposal?

Even though I came here to make an offer to him, he was offering to me.

Diogenes: join our guild.

Solomon: huh. WAIT, WHAT!?

This was totally unexpected for me. Having caught me off guard my reaction was instinctual.

Diogenes: that's right. If you become part of our guild I have no doubt you can reach S rank, maybe even higher.

Though his offer was enticing, and it would solve my current problems, I had to refuse.

Solomon: I'm sorry. I cannot join your guild.

Diogenes: I thought so. It's a shame. Though I would like to personally nurture someone like you, your choice is your own.

It seemed like he had already anticipated my answer. Having talked to me for a while he probably assessed my personality. Though it would fix a lot of my problems it would mean two things. On was that I would be under the authority of another. I could not bring myself to follow another person when I already have my own goals.

Most importantly, though, I would have to give up my guild. Though it was only recently created, I had made a home there. My teammates were like family to me. I could never forgive myself if I abandoned them.

Solomon: thank you for your understanding. So. I'll give you these weapons and I'll consider my debt to you paid.

Diogenes: this is more than enough for the help I gave you. But if you insist, I'll accept them.

After transferring over the items we continued our conversation.

Solomon: so, the second reason I came here. Let's make a bet.