Domain

volume 2 upgrade specialist interval chapter 41 - a bet

Diogenes: a bet, what kind of bet?

Solomon: I'm going to tell you some things that I hope can stay between.

Though what I was planning was risky, I didn't have much choice.

Diogenes: I swear as a guardian of the city I will keep this between us.

Siegfried: I swear as manager of the command centre to keep this confidential.

Solomon: I have only been through two missions.

Siegfried and Diogenes: WHAAAAAAAT?

Diogenes: you're joking right?

Solomon: I'm not, I've been through my test mission as well as one other.

Siegfried: you made it above G rank in only two missions. What kind of demon are you?

Solomon: actually I made it to G rank after my test. At the moment I've made it to the limit of G rank.

Falling face first onto the table, Diogenes complained about the unfairness.

Diogenes BANG, what a joke. It took me 7 missions to make it to G rank. Even then I was considered a genius. Even the fastest I've ever heard of was 5 missions.

Apparently, I was extremely lucky to get to G rank in my first mission. Though I was not sure what the average even was, so I didn't think much of it.

Solomon: is it impressive that I got to G rank so fast. I'm rather uneducated on this subject.

Siegfried: if you've only been here for a week, it's understandable you don't know. Most people who come to Domain don't become G rank for at least 30 missions. This is because most unranked do missions in groups. As such the points they make tends to be split. Even those rare occurrences that make it to G rank fast take at least 3 mission, not including the test.

It seems I was well ahead of the average. Even the most talented were a few steps behind me.

Solomon: what's the average to make it from G to F rank.

Diogenes: it's 10 missions. The talented can usually make it after 5. The best I've heard of is 3. why?

Solomon: I bet you I'll make it in 1 mission.

Though he should be shocked, at this point he was ready for anything.

Diogenes: so that's the bet. What are the stakes?

Solomon: if you win I'll do whatever you want me to. If I win, you have to do me one favour.

Diogenes: a favour?

This was the moment of truth. If he refused I would be in a difficult situation

Solomon: I want you to help me destroy the capitalist mages guild.

Picking up on my serious tone, Diogenes also became serious.

Diogenes: I would like to, however, it's not possible. Without evidence, I can't take action.

Solomon: what evidence do you need.

Diogenes: anything less than a written or verbal admission by the guild leader is not enough.

After a few moments of contemplation, I continued.

Solomon: I can get you that. However, I need you to promise me that when I do you react quickly. If you take too long they will go to extreme lengths to destroy that evidence. Even if I'm F rank I can't hold off a whole guild.

Diogenes: then it's agreed, I'll take you up on that bet.

Reaching his hand out he waited for me to shake it.

Solomon: then it's agreed.

Reaching out I shook his hand.

Solomon: now that that's sorted, I have other things to do. I'll leave now. Thank you very much for your time.

Diogenes: don't worry about it, Siegfried, see him out.

Standing up Siegfried beckoned me to follow him.

Siegfried: follow me, I'll show you out.

Leaving Diogenes office we began walking down the corridor. From what I remember the door at the end led back to the lobby.

Siegfried: you are a very interesting person, so let me give you a piece of advice. Keep both your accomplishments and your equipment hidden. There are many people in this world who would have no issue with killing you over such things.

Solomon: thank you for your advice, I'll take it to heart.

I had learnt firsthand what happens when you buy even half decent equipment. It was originally that which brought the capitalist mages attention onto me. If the power of dragon's fire was exposed, it wouldn't be long before everyone under the moon was after me.

After walking through a door we appeared back in the front lobby. Turning to Siegfried I said my goodbyes.

Solomon: I'll be leaving then, thank you for all the help today.

Siegfried: it's fine, think of this as me investing in a talented newbie. Bye now.

Returning to his work, Siegfried re-entered the door.

Solomon: investing in a newbie huh.

Having been able to strike a deal with Diogenes, I no longer had to take extreme measures. Now I just had to hide for a week, then I could do a mission, reach F rank and have Diogenes destroy the capitalist mages.

If he had rejected my deal I would have been forced to confront the guild. My teammates and I could not hide for ages until we reached F rank. Though I was confident in reaching F rank myself, the others had only just made it to this level.

In exchange for the weapons I had, I hoped they would forget this incident. Though in all likelihood they would just try to kill me and take it. In a last ditch effort, I would use all of my qi to destroy a huge part of their base. I hoped with this damage, my teammates could escape, even if it meant my death.

However, it didn't come to that. Walking back across the city centre I made it back to the hotel lobby. Just as I entered, I saw the frantic frames of three people rushed out of the hallway. These people were my teammates.

Upon seeing me they each had different reactions. Gareth's was understanding whereas pluvia's was relieved. As for Alice.

Alice: COME HERE, IDIOT!

Dashing over, she had grabbed me by my collar before I could react. With supernatural strength, she dragged me out of the lobby, towards our rooms. Forcing me to sit in a chair once we were back in the room, she glared intensely at me.

Alice: WHAT DID YOU DO?

Knowing I had kicked a hornet's nest, I chose my words carefully.

Solomon: uh, well. You see I kind of acted on my own.

Alice: why didn't you include us? We already discussed this before. We do things as a team, not by ourselves.

At this point Gareth spoke up, trying to calm Alice down.

Gareth: Alice, he did what he did for the guild, can't you cut him some slack.

As soon as he'd said it the death glare from Alice was directed at him.

Gareth: uh, actually nevermind. You right, he's stupid.

Instantly regretting his words, Gareth backtracked as fast as he could.

Looking back at me, Alice continued speaking.

Alice: so, what do you have to say for yourself?

Solomon: I don't have a choice, there isn't any point in all of us risking our lives. You must have read the letter, right? We needed to take action, this was the best way.

Realising I couldn't apologise my way out of the situation, I tried to convince her with logic.

Alice: it doesn't matter if us being there is pointless. We're comrades, we live and die together.

From behind Alice both Pluvia and Gareth nodded, agreeing with her point.

Solomon: alright, I should have included you, but I won't let you risk yourselves unnecessarily. As the guild leader, I am responsible for each of you. I couldn't live with it if my actions caused you harm.

Gareth: I can accept that.

Pluvia: me too.

Alice: Fine, but I still don't like it.

With everyone's agreement, we moved on.

Gareth: so what did you learn?

I went on to explain what I had learnt, as well as the deal I had made.

Alice: it seems like we got lucky. But are you sure you can make F rank in one mission? He said the best he'd ever heard off was three missions.

Solomon: I don't have a choice. The longer we leave the capitalist mages the more time they have to deal with us. If I had said two or three missions that would be two or three weeks. I can't be sure that they couldn't find a way to deal with us in that time. I doubt no matter how resourceful they are, that they can get us in 7 days.

Gareth: it's a fair point. But doesn't this mean you'll have to complete a hidden objective next mission? A hard one too. Harder than befriending Carbones. With the hidden objective last mission, overall we got 4 G rank rewards between us. This meant that you either have to complete a harder objective or find one where only you receive the reward.

Solomon: yeah, but we'll deal with that when we come to it. For now, we have a lot of things to do.

Pluvia: stuff to do? What stuff?

As we were now a guild there were several new actions open to us.

Solomon: now that we're officially a guild, there are things we need to do. For today don't worry about it, we'll start working tomorrow.

Gareth: if that’s everything we need to talk about, I'll be off.

Having finished with everything urgent, Gareth left.

Alice: I'm going to stay here with you Solomon, I'll be keeping an eye on you.

From her tone, I knew I had absolutely no chance at dissuading her. Begrudgingly I consented.

Solomon: all right then, what are you going to do then?

I directed my question at Pluvia.

Pluvia: I'm going to train.

Saying so, she went back to Alice's room. Leaving only the two of us.

Turning to Alice I told her what I was planning on doing.

Solomon: there are some things I want to test. I'll be in the bedroom.

Even after all that had happened, it was only 11. There was still a lot of time left in the day.

Settling down cross-legged on my bed, I contemplated the best way to test my ideas. There were two things I wanted to check. The first was if it was possible to obtain enhancements without using the system. Though I had seen that unranked could cultivate energy, they never even approached G rank. Though they could reach that level without the system, it would take years to even reach G rank.

Solomon: hmm

On another note, I wondered if traditionally passed on races like vampire and werewolf worked. Like if my first F rank race was a vampire, could I make people into G or even F rank vampires. Being as I could not test this now, I put it aside.

The other thing I thought about was if skills could be learnt without the system. I knew skill books were sold in the market. By destroying the book you could learn its contents. However, I wondered if you could learn a skill through practice. For the purpose of testing this, I had a plan.

Solomon: how are you Ourous.