Arino, the capital city of the Araka Duchy.
In the market district, a fruit stall owner was haggling with a customer about the price of grapes.
Just then another man walked hurriedly towards the stall, saying, “Brother, how much are the bananas today?”
“4 for 25, 14 for 100 ena,” the stall owner answered, looking at the newcomer.
“Nice, give me 14.”
“Ohh.” The stall owner was stunned for a moment, but then a delighted smile spread on his face.
He hurriedly nodded.
“Ok.”
He took out a bag and put 14 bananas in it, handing it over to the man.
“Thanks.”
Giving the money, the man left.
The owner counted the notes with a derisive smile and said to the other man who was still there, “See, this is how it should be.
No haggling, no bullshit.
Everyone in the area knows I, Milium, never”
Suddenly he stopped, his eyes fixed on a 10 ena note.
Suddenly he looked up, this time a certain change in his eyes.
“Sorry, the stall is closed.”
“Huh?” The man, stunned, said, “Wait, I’m still thinking if you’ll lower the price a little bit.”
Milium put a hand up.
“I said the stall is closed.”
His voice had a certain edge to it that didn’t let the man continue.
Half-hurriedly closing the stall, he hurriedly walked towards the edge of the city.
Turning a corner, he bumped into someone.
Saying sorry, both kept walking.
Opening the bag that was handed to him, he took out a black cloak, wearing it.
He took another turn, this time into a narrow alley.
Walking down it, he looked around.
No one was here.
He stopped in front of a door in the middle of the alley.
Knock knock knock.
Knocking in a rhythm, he knocked 3 times, then 4 times, then 2 times.
Finally, a sound came from the other side.
The door opened, but Milium didn’t walk in.
Instead he took two steps back, leaning against the wall.
Three seconds later a barrier covered both sides of the alley.
Then Milium felt the wall vanish behind him as he took a third step back.
It was dark. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
In front of him the wall was rippling, then it turned back into a wall.
Finally he turned around, finding two hooded men just like him holding mage staffs pointed at him.
“Milium,” he said.
Both hooded men nodded, lowering their mage staffs.
One of them knocked on the door behind them.
It opened and Milium walked in.
In the room, 7 similarly hooded people were sitting in chairs surrounding a round table.
Milium took the last seat, everyone’s eyes on him.
The person on his left put a circular device on the table, activating it.
A strange magical pulse spread and a dome surrounded everyone.
“So,” with a deep voice Milium started, “when did the permit activate?”
“Approximately 15 minutes ago,” another black-hooded man reported, his voice a little soft.
“Is it 100% confirmed?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
Milium sat back in his chair with a thoughtful expression.
“This means Joseph is finally taking action, but why hasn’t he responded to our messages for 6 months?”
“Maybe it’s related to the reason why he needed so much time to finally act,” said another hooded man.
“Most probably, but…” Milium nodded.
“We need to be cautious.
This is a big opportunity after so long.”
Everyone nodded.
“Did you inform the Empire?”
“Yes.”
Milium nodded.
“Good.
Now we just have to confirm with Central Command.
When is the expiration date on the badges?”
“4 weeks.”
“Ok.
Get the target list ready and inform Aka One Army.
It’s finally time to end our mission.”
All the hooded men nodded.
Suddenly the one in the far corner asked,
Joseph never explained if she’s in on it or not, and even if we have the academy core under our control she’ll still have equal authority.
Neither Aka One Army nor we have anyone even close to her strength.”
The table fell silent.
Milium suddenly stood up.
“Let’s ask Central Command about that.
I’m sure they’ll have a way to get her out of the academy and unavailable when it’s time for our mission.
We just focus on erasing our tracks for now.”
Everyone nodded.
In the 57th level of the World Dungeon, it was a forest full of large trees and giant creatures.
Crackle crackle.
BOOOM!
A loud sound of thunder rang out as something or more accurately someone—crashed through the forest like a fired cannonball, becoming the reason many trees fell.
He finally stopped embedded deep inside a giant tree trunk.
Two seconds later, with a thunderous noise, a girl arrived in the sky above the tree looking down, her eyes narrowed.
“Stop playing dead!” shouted the girl at the tree.
Silence was the only response she got, which made her short fuse finally snap.
As she gathered lightning in her hand, she morphed it into a spear and hurled it at the tree, completely destroying what was left of it.
It lit up in fire as most of the tree was now charcoal black.
She was about to blast it with more lightning bolts but right then something shiny started to walk out from the fire.
Looking closely, it was a person.
His whole body was a shiny silver color, as if instead of flesh and blood his body was made of adamantine which it actually was right now.
He looked up with an annoyed expression.
“Why are you so noisy?
I was thinking of taking a quick nap in there.
It was surprisingly comfy.
Or maybe that’s just me.”
“Take this seriously, Ken, otherwise you’ll regret this.”
At that, Ken looked up and smirked.
“You have no idea how many people have used that same exact dialogue.
Guess what?
I never did regret it, and I don’t think this will be any different.”
As if provoked, a thunderstorm started building in the sky.
Elizabeth’s eyes lit up like twin stars.
“I’ll change that.”