Guild master Martha sighed as she sat down in her seat.

Melken hadn't been back for a week and she was getting worried.

Actually, she wasn't, he always was an annoying shit that couldn't shoot straight. It was why he was at such a low level.

But even if his level was low and his talent was abysmal, he should've been back by now. Either his assignment was taking longer than usual with some extra quests he picked up.

Of something fowl was afoot. That, or he had taken the money she had given him up front and skipped town before she would notice.

Made sense in a certain kind of way she supposed.

"Marrisa, get squad three in here I have need for their talents," Martha yelled to her assistant. A meek "yes mam" was all that Martha heard before the faint sound of dials and magical enchantments running through complex formulas replaced it.

Seven minutes passed as Martha laid in her chair. Contemplating the meaning of life, the only time when you could do so in fact.

Martha felt that last line would cause her monk friends to argue with her furiously but they were on the other side of the world meditating under the sweltering sun in a blizzard.

Her door slowly opened, revealed three woman. All of them were elves, like everyone else in the outpost put they happened to be silver-shadow elves.

Which was perculir to say the least, considering the kind the birthed them usually hated each other and were infertile when paired up most of the time.

But it wasn't their looks that made them special. It was their classes.

Leandrial, the silver-shadow elf in the center of the group covering herself in silver armor with black hair and red eyes was the groups DPS or Death Per-Second had mastered the Image of Wind and Water. Along with a powerful understanding of the Ideal of slinging and the Practice of Gluttony.

This gave her the ability to not only hit hard, but made her an absolute nightmare in a war of attrition as she would use Wind magic to direct attacks to her. Use Glutton Practice to absorb the energy attack. Then convert the magic into water before using the sling Ideal to hurl it back at high speeds.

And that was all in a couple of second.

Merry Merry meanwhile, a bald woman with a green exoskeleton wrapped around her entirity. Held the ability to create a large exoskeleton around her charged with the Practice of Static and Practice of Needles.

Giving her a good defense that left you more hurt than before you attacked.

That along with her suitable mace skills made her a domineering force on the battlefield. It was only a few months till she added Practice of Mace to her arsenal. Or she fused it to her original practices.

Finally there was Sh'ara. With red autum hair and soft grey eyes that betrayed the lethality she held in her hand everyday. The healer of the group, alchemy was her forte, allowing her to create health and magic potions that would heal a person of physical and magical wounds.

They were powerful and certainly far more deadly than Melken. Probably even deadlier than Martha had they not have their weaknesses.

"What is our mission?" Leandrial asked, her time rough yet quiet.

"One of our lower priority members has disappeared, I want you to investigate and see what happened. If he abandoned the group, you know what to do."

Leandrial gave Martha a small nod before turning around and walking out the front door. Her sibling following after her, each one quiet. No, silent was a better word.

Martha smiled as she wrote down an order to her top alchemist.

As the sibling stepped out of the office and made their way towards their new assignment. A random recruit would bump into Merry Merry. The man would fall down on the ground in a tumble. Merry Merry not even noticing him.

As they moved forward, a piece of Merry Merry's exoskeleton has shifted ever so slightly. Merry Merry would quickly adjust it back into place.

But not before what was underneath was exposed to the world at large for a second. That of dozens of pulsating black veins pumping forth dark filthy bile.

The veins extending all the to through the throat and stopping at the chin. The veins pumping three times every second, the bile in the sloshing back and forth with the freedom it denied her.

She needed some new medicine soon. All of them did.

This job had to go well. Otherwise...

Well, there was a reason they didn't have a fourth sister.