CHAPTER 94: THE A RANKED MISSION (BONUS)

The next day, mages of ravens grave had stepped out of their rooms slowly and one by one.

Kayden this time was the first of the initiates to stand infront of the mission request board. He was going through the requests when Aiden stepped in and noticed it.

Aiden with a happy face about him, walked closer to also scan through the board, then he asked, "when will you stop being distant from the team?"

While still staring at the board, Kayden replied, "Team?" then scoffed and walked away towards Fred and Sorkin on one part of the room.

Aiden shook his head. On one part he didn’t blame Kayden.

The whole reason Kayden had been closer to them was because of Arianna, and now that they weren’t together anymore, it was expected he’d have started taking his distance.

Aiden however decided to give more focus to the untaken tasks before him. There were four mission requests and they had A rank difficulty.

Except one, which is D. Ironically the A ranked missions weren’t dungeon related, just the one with D ranked difficulty.

Most of the other A rank missions were already signed off by some other members of the guild, save for one.

The details of the last mission required atleast 3 mages who would follow the shipment of blue ore from the Academy’s research room unit all the way to another correspondence unit from the Kingdom of Zahka. This mission was also expected to begin within three days of receive the mission request.

Blue ore was a special form of material used in the making of special weapons for Zahkans. It was a material found in a few parts of Xathia and the research unit of the Academy mined it, then shipped to Zahka.

The shipment would not start until the mages to act as escorts were ready and had alerted the research room.

Aiden then waited for the other mages to step into the guild’s main room and not long after they did.

Oliver, now in the guild’s uniform had stepped in not long after, turns out he shares a room with Aiden and Kayden. And piers, whenever piers decided to stay in the room anyway.

He went to the corner of the room where Aiden sat and, took his place close to him. Soon after, Laela, Arianna and Elena came into the main room at the same time.

They all sat around the same table as Aiden and Oliver. Kayden peaked at them from a corner for a second, deep down he wanted to be there but won’t just admit to himself.

Laela with a pretty smile on her face, moved her hand from underneath the table and held Aiden’s. She sat on Aiden’s left side, and somehow wasn’t nervous again about displaying her feelings publicly for Aiden.

Aiden didn’t mind that she was holding him either. He goes on to explain on the mission’s details he wanted them to go on.

Not long after, they got permission from the Captain and then proceeded to the research room.

They had identified with the Head Scholar, Conrad about the mission assigned to them and right after, Conrad gave the go ahead to a subordinate to have the blue iron ore be shipped to their receivers at Shinjin’s pass.

Shinjin’s pass as they called it was the deep canyon that connected Xathia to the Kingdom of Zahka.

...

Several minutes later, the blue ores were loaded in a cart which was to be pulled by a horse. The horse was ridden by a mage servant of the research room.

Behind the horse and cart were Aiden, Laela, Arianna, Oliver and this time, Elena. A party of five from the Ravens Grave guild.

Each one sat on the back of a horse provided by the Research unit of the kingdom. Save for Oliver, who rode behind Aiden.

Then they party set off into the road path which led out of the Academy and slowly away from the city.

After a few hours ride on Horse Back, the party arrived at Shinjin’s pass. The other party supposedly from Zahka all sat on the back of their horses waiting.

The mage servant that carried the blue ore, dismounted from his horse and walked forwards to the warriors of Zahka who were all dressed in their all black attire Zakha’s warriors were known for

The leader of the party of warriors dismounted from his own horse and walked towards the mage servant.

They both shook hands and spoke in inaudible tones but then they understood themselves.

The leader then turned to his warriors behind and motioned to them to go and get the blue ores. They all dismounted from their horses and went towards the cart.

However, Aiden who watched his horse said to himself, "this feels too easy..."

There had to be reason why this mission request needed escort mages and was of A ranked difficulty.

If anything, it meant that it’s something that faced possible danger whenever it was being moved from that long distance.

Aiden then paid keen attention to the supposed warriors as they carried the blue ores one by one from the cart. That was when he noticed something.

"Is that blood?" He whispered to himself as he saw little bloodstains that wasn’t fully cleaned off from the boots of one of these warriors.

This then prompted him to activate dragon’s sight and then he saw it all properly. Within the all black robes and warrior attires were bloodied knives.

Aiden then dismounted from his horse, which cause the other mages of ravens grave to pay attention to him.

Aiden approached their leader and said, "That was a Good hunt on the way I suppose?"

That question was intentional. He asked it so that their heart rates may confirm to him what he might’ve been suspecting.

And it did, the leader’s heart spiked up faster than normal.

That was panic. Which only meant one thing, something truly was off.

"What are you talking about?" The man asked with a puzzled facial expression, whilst sounding undisturbed.