After returning to finish his report of the incident about sighting a cryper in the second floor. Deralst had also checked that there was no other interesting request at the moment, so he decided that there was nothing else to do by staying here.

It was still afternoon when Deralst had walked out of the building afterwards to find a separate bar to drink at. Musing to himself while strolling down the street.

He assumed that with such a dangerous monster roaming around in the higher floors, the association would definitely issue a warning to the adventurers and dispatch a team to the dungeon to eventually kill that thing. They would also set up extermination and confirmation requests on the quest bulletin board for anyone to take up on, with the necessary warning of course.

The town was teeming with various adventurers. Most of which were aspiring newbies that had decided to take up on the adventuring career, especially back in the association’s building.

After walking down the busy town street for a while, he promptly decided to turn left into a dusty alley through the side to avoid the huge crowd of people down the street of the market district.

The path to the town’s market place was now constantly flooded with various adventurers. The atmosphere of the surrounding area was so full of energy that even Deralst could feel it five shops away from here.

Usually Deralst would not mind such a thing, but today it just simply contrasted greatly with the dispirited emotions he was currently feeling right now.

While walking through the alleyway that was supposed to be the shortcut to the other end of the market district. In there, various poor and homeless people can be seen lying about in the corner of the valley.

They did not pay any attention to Deralst though, as his full body of light armour shows that he was well equipped enough to deal with anyone trying to mug him. Deralst was confident about that at least.

Even so, he still had every reason to feel gloomy today, aside from the inhospitable reception here of course.

“I guess this was just not my day after all…..”

During his previous venture into the dungeon, despite having acquired the necessary confirmation that the dungeon had relations to demonic influence. He had still lost the only hellhound he had left during the previous battle, and he was now left alone to truly do things on his own.

While he intended to go back to that dungeon, he lacked the necessary team members do so. Especially if he needed to get far in the dungeon, even more so when there were possibly other equally dangerous demonic monsters roaming around there. But he could do so if he still have a team like he used to in the past, but that was something in the past.

He could still try to conjure more demons to help him but it was very troublesome. Aside from the necessary offerings required during the ritual to attract the demons, one had to either overwhelm them when they appeared just to bind them, or form a contract with it by striking a deal.

While it may be an easier method to form a contract with them, most people, him included just simply cannot trust those conniving demons that easily.

“I guess I have to somehow deal with it..….again.”

Deralst breathed out a sigh. Personally, he did not want to associate himself with other inexperienced new adventurers nor did he want to join them either.

At the current moment, they were either only as good as a distraction or as a fodder when exploring the deeper parts of the dungeon. It was not that he was being arrogant here but merely being realistic, and he did not want their deaths to be on his conscience nor his already dubious reputation either.

While he could find some new adventurers or even purchase some slaves to train from the scratch but it seemed to be too troublesome and costly to do it, and even more time consuming and inefficient to keep them too. In spite of all that effort, they could also easily die on the way or just leave the party after they got strong enough to do so.

Which in the end, defeats the purpose of making them strong enough to accompany him in the first place. Especially with the amount of time he had intended to dawdle around here anyway.

After when he was done here, he would leave and continue to travel to other different dungeons too. He was just someone who constantly move around with no roots of his own.

“I guess sometimes life was just simply like that, you win, you lose.”

He murmured again. He had accepted that it was just the reality of the world that he had to deal with, no point in complaining about it. Not that he did much of that anyway, aside from ruminating about the problems he had encountered of course.

When he exited through the alleyway to the other side, he continued to walk down the street towards his destination. He stayed away from the areas close to the church. That place was where most of the religious people gather at, and things will get pretty awkward and troublesome if he were to meet someone like that on his way.

He had a bad day as it was, and he really does not feel like actually doing anything else today. So he would just head directly towards a tavern he had found at a remote corner of a street so that he could rest.

It was a huge two storey building that was supposed to be the only other place where more unsavoury adventurers would gather at.

The tavern would serve as a place for him to eat, a bar to drink and gather information while also as an inn for him as to sleep for the night.

While the building at the adventurer’s association could also do that too, but those facilities were mostly reserved for the guild members there. Besides, he did not wish to attract any more attention from those insufferable people as much as he had already.

When he entered inside the bar, he tried to find a table to sit at while ignoring some curious glances. Just when he finally got to a seat he found, he was rudely accosted by a group of familiar adventurers instead.

Derlast glared at these adventurers. They acted like they had just arrived here, but he had remembered seeing them somewhere before.

“Well, well, we didn’t expect to see you here Deralst.”

Said a huge adventurer plated in a heavy set of armour, while standing in front of him by blocking his way. The man's size and height made him seemed like a tough warrior.

Deralst sighed again, he really did not want to deal with this, it had been a pretty bad day today.

Not having a suitable party to work with, having his venture in the dungeon being disrupted halfway and now this.

So it would be pretty understandable that he was not currently in a great mood to deal with these annoying people, but he would still try to be civil anyway. He was not angry nor he did not want to cause any unnecessary trouble here.

So despite him feeling weary right now, Deralst still tried to be reasonable and calmly placate the adventurers. No one needs to get burnt today.

“Look, I am sorry for not wanting to join your team last time, but I have my own personal reasons. It is all in the past now. So I really hope you can just let bygones be bygones and forget that we even meet each other here, I could even treat you all to a drink.”

He still thought it would not hurt to be considerate for them now anyway, despite them being a jerk right now. At most, when the next time he saw their group in trouble inside the dungeon he will just simply ignore them…..or maybe lure some monsters to them for good measure too.

“Screw that! You demonspawn! A heretic like you does not deserve to have a place here among us anyway.”

Deralst frowned, just before he was about to make a reply involving some rude slurring and creative insults. Someone else bumped into the warrior from behind and this in turn made the man stop what he was doing instead.

“Wha!? Hey! You should look at where you are going!”

The huge adventurer shouted and he turned his attention around to his back, wanting to address the offender, but instead he just saw a hollow skeletal face staring back at him.

“AAH!”

Despite how intimidating the man had tried to appear before, he immediately yelped back in surprise. It's almost like he had just seen a cockroach taken flight in front of his face.

“Oh, I am terribly sorry about that, good sir! My fellow skeleton sure likes to wander behind people, causing trouble and scaring the plebeians masses around here and there when I had just slightly taken my eyes off it.”

Deralst saw a familiar dark robed man appearing beside the skeleton dramatically, he spoke in a slightly haughty manner.

Feeling indignant about his previous fright. The shaken man remarked loudly while pointing his fingers at him.

“Argh, this man is a necromancer! They are those freaking type of people who play with the dead!”

The refered nercomancer scoffed instead.

“You don't say? Now, there’s no need to be so hostile, we are still fellow guests here.”

The warrior continued shouting loudly, trying to be more persistent here. His temple could be seen bulging right now.

“Just stay out of the way corpse hugger!”

The black robed man snorted again.

“Hmph, spoken like a truly ignorant fool."

He fearlessly walked closer to the front the huge adventurer and glared dangerously into his eyes.

"I would watch my words if I were you. Inside the dungeon, you will never know what is lurking out there, in the dark corners where monsters roam and corpses walked. Who knows, maybe you might just turn out to be one of them in the future. We can just never really know what happens inside the dungeon after all.”

The mage sneered haughtily, the tone of his voice carrying a slight hint of threat.

The men were clearly shaken by his treat-like words but they still leave yet. A more anxious guy standing beside the large adventure nervously prompted his comarade instead, clearly wanting to leave.

“James, I think we should just leave these creeps here. I don’t like the sudden feeling about this, besides we still have to leave for the dungeon with Mara afterwards too.”

Sensibly, despite being a bit hesitant, the huge warrior had agreed with him too, feeling uneasy about the sudden change in the situation.

“Fine, but I will be back! Don’t think I will forget about this!” Shouted the rowdy warrior.

Those troublemakers hastily left the bar, leaving the duo of deviants behind. Drawing some strange stares from the other guests and a person smirking beside Deralst.

—

After having sat down on the seat around his own table. Deralst saw that the mage had also casually picked himself a seat across the other side of the table, his skeleton sitting beside him. Their presence was being quite out of place within the bar, dropping the temperature of the bar's ambiance a bit slightly.

In towns and villages, summoners and mages like the necromancer were actually free to bring their own constructs around with them freely, so long as they kept them in limited numbers and in a tight lease, so as not to cause trouble to residents around here.

Slightly raising his brow Deralst stared at the laid back mage across the table. While looking closely, Deralst observed that he had pale skin, thin features and had a black hair with a slightly ducktail type of beard in the same color, he looked slightly more like a sick vampiric corpse than someone who was alive, not the ugly kind of course. In fact, he had sort of a normal scholarly look that let him seemed more like the impression of a learned man.

Deralst could already guess why the person was here but he really did not feel like associating himself with the mage right now, at least not today…..

The mage who was a necromancer began nonchalantly gesturing for the barmaid who was trying to ignore the whole affair that had just happened before.

Deralst actually felt quite reluctant to treat the necromancer to a drink right now. He was not currently interested in having an awkward drinking buddy nor was he in the mood for it. Although the mage seemed to have helped him defused the situation just now, Deralst still felt that he could have handled it somehow….

Even even if the confrontation before was not resolved peacefully, Deralst still did not need to draw his weapon to murder someone here. Instead he would just taunt them into a fight just like they had intended, kicking their ass and simply end the incident as a ‘harmless’ brawl, or maybe losing it on the way.

Even if they would try and seek revenge on him in the dungeon, he could just burn them all to crisp in there, and simply acted like it had never happened anyway. After all, not many people were able to prepare themselves much against someone who could retaliate back through the empowerment of demonic powers.

But Deralst could not be stingy at a time like this, could he? Trying to turn his attention away from the necromancer, he chose to wave for the unwilling barmaid to order for a drink instead.

“Haaa, the quality of service for the staff here sure have deteriorated. I wonder how the customers have put up with this.” The necromancer complained loudly.

This man was a bit too easygoing and talkative to be thought of as the stereotypical dark and gloomy necromancer. Not that a person’s personality have anything to do with being a necromancer of course and undeniably, Deralst was not the one to judge either.

The Necromancer continued on to complain about the tavern’s atmosphere, the efficiency and the treatment of the people here, which also include some rude remarks about the Diabolist’s current attitude too.

Deralst really wanted to praise his own mild and temperate mentality, if it was anyone else who was less patient, they would have already jumped up and punched that self-important sack of embarrassment already.

He sighed for the umpteenth time, not wanting to delay the fuss anymore. Deralst had decided to resolved himself and start the conversation with the bothersome mage instead.

“So what is a necrophilic necromancer like you doing out here in the bar? Don’t you have something else to do? Like rising the dead or probably doing some other nefarious research.”

Unabashed by Deralst’s rude remarks, the necromancer proceeded to readily respond him.

“Ah, where are my manners! I have not yet given you a name to address myself yet. My name is Falsces Lethren, the mage known to be a necromancer! Now, since I had given my name, how shall I refer to you as, kind sir?”

“You can just call me Deralst, and you can stop with the formalities already.”

“Ahem" Faking a cough and trying to continue the conversation, Falsces had decided to jump straight to the topic instead. "Seeing that you have not yet form a team of your own yet, would you be willing to accept some new members to be joining you instead?”

“No, I am currently not accepting new members to join me, I am actually trying to find another team to join instead.” Deralst tried to answer him in a straight face, avoiding the topic.

While he was indeed searching for new party members, that did not mean that he was desperate enough to accept an obnoxious necromancer yet. Rather, he felt that the mage who was forced to be chased by the undead were anything but reliable.

“In that case, are you willing to accept a request of mine as a job? Since there is no one else that is willing to associate with me and I have also deemed that you are the best person for the job.” Going for another tact, Falsces carefully proposed another subject to talk about.

“That depends on how much you are willing to pay.” Deralst was casually trying to prevaricate the topic this time.

His cranky mind was not trying to think about anything else right now. Not that he was looking down on the necromancer being able to afford the request of course. And he currently occupied with many other things to work and focus on.

“Ah, as the matter of fact, I may not have much coin to pay you right now, but as an alternative, I am willing to offer you some useful services, so how about the idea of having some golems to serve under you come across as?” The mage offered.

This got Deralst's attention, he certainly needed something like that right now and while the idea of having a helpful construct was undoubtedly useful but he was actually more curious whether the necromancer’s ability was reliable to construct a golem in the first place.

Reading Deralst’s doubtful expression, the mage started to explain himself.

“Aside from Necromancy, I had also practiced Golemancy taught under the magic academy of Magvus! Which is known as the best mage school in the continent!" Falsces announced unabashedly in a seemingly excited manner.

"Although, I had learnt to conjure more powerful golems there, which normally requires a hefty amount of resources and such prices but I had managed to work around the problem by substituting certain components to a much more manageable amount required than it already had." The necromancer boasted, and he continued his bragging until Deralst had interrupted him.

“So what is the details of this request you are speaking about?” Already exasperated, Deralst did not really care about the tedious topic relating to the mage’s achievements, so he chose to interrupt Falsces to talk about something else.

“Ah, in exchange for my services, I need you to help escort me back to my ritual chambers, and then back to main laboratory too. I have seen your abilities when you fought with that cryper, I need someone of such caliber to help escort me on my way there." The necromancer explained.

Deralst was unconvinced, he was considering as their drinks had arrived to be served on table. Deralst took a sip from the fruity drink as the necromancer continued on.

"Since I am feeling generous right now, I am willing to help construct the golems without needing you to provide the necessary resources too!” Like an obvious salesperson he had also try to pitch in something as an additional offer to tempt Deralst too.

Ignoring what he just said, Deralst continued by asking why he needed to help escort him back to the research lab, which the necromancer responded vaguely stated that during his research, he had managed to conjure a special type of golem, but he had immediately lost it as he left it behind in a sudden commotion with the cryper, so he needed to retrieve it back.

To do that, he needs to check back on his research chamber and if he failed to find it there. He would then return to his main base to use his guardian golems to protect him while he searches around the rest of the dungeon for it. It sounded important, at least to the necromancer.

But before getting there, the mage needed a reliable escort. Which Deralst really tempted to ask why he did not bring his guardians along in the first place, but he had thoughtfully decided not to do so in the end. It may possibly be some reason like not wanting to bring something that strong to the newbie floors or that the man just thought it was just not that dangerous enough to bring it along.

“I had set three of my guardian golems there, each of them are as hard as forged steel. As a comparison, their abilities are capable of rivaling a B ranked team of veteran adventurers. If I were to be able to get them back, the safety of my travels in the dungeon would surely guarantee to be a brisk!”

As the necromancer continued to talk on about the functionality of his golems, as if trying to promote them. Deralst contemplated on the benefits of this request, as he continued tasting his drink. It was a very useful offer as not anyone could get their hands on a helpful golem or find a person to build it.

What exactly was his research anyway? Deralst thought. The mage kept saying that it was important, but was it some sort of golem cultivation experiment for a new type of disease? Or was it some sort of mutated undead experiment? He really hoped it was not related to huge undead spiders. But since it is related to a necromancer, it surely would not be something good.

While deep in consideration of his thoughts, Deralst did not pay much attention to what Falsces was saying, until nearly the very end.

“....Only after I have started pursuing necromancy to integrate it and advance my proficiency in golemancy that I was finally able to make a breakthrough! It just shows that only those who dares to venture forward will succeed, like how Golumpus was able to discover a new continent in first place!" Falsces was still elaborating on.

"It all seems worth it now to leave those snobby mages in the academy behind, who are unwilling to pursue and advance a certain field of study just because it is frowned upon!"

"Alright, I will accept your request, Falsces." Disrupting the mage who was immersed in his speech, Deralst had made his decision.

"But in the condition that you allow me to check and know the quality of the necessary materials used to build the golems and also agree to disclose the information of its makeup while letting me add or alter some of its contents when I may need to." Derlast started his negotiation with the mage.

"Also to state, for this request, I will require two golems to be constructed as the amount of remuneration for me to help you, is that acceptable? And how can I trust you for upholding your side of the agreement?" Deralst had finally stated his requirements and doubts.

While it may seem bothersome to the mage but it was still a lot better to be cautious instead. Falsces claimed to have a better method in building the golems but after said and done, the mage's abilities was still unproven. He also did not wish to have the materials that cause the golems made for him to be weaker, or worse.

"Haha, I see, there is no reason to argue with you about that now! You see, for the the golems, please rest assured that I am willing to loan to you two of my guardians as some form of collateral when we get there, until the time when the procedures for constructing the golems are completed." After answering him, the mage rised his almost bloodless looking hand for Deralst to accept it, which after some thoughts, he grabbed it in return.

"I actually look forward to our partnership in working together from now on and maybe the possible future too."

"That goes for me too."

Since this was not an association's request, there would not be any contracts formed, but just an agreement based on the understanding and trust on both sides as their responsibility to uphold and honour it.

While Deralst did not expect himself to be going back into that dungeon that early, when the cryper was still roaming around. He certainly welcome the idea of the possible gains he could have gotten.

But deep in the back of his mind, he had some sort of a slight doubt, a bad feeling, something uneasy, something dark, gnawing…. and struggling to get out. Did he truly accept the request because of the possible benefits or was it something else?