The Captain had gathered a team for the A-rank dungeon she was going to lead. The team makeup included all the Initiates, then Piers and Elena.
The Initiates were picked due to their magic strengths, although they had been instructed to play passive and more supportive roles.
However, when the captain and her members arrived at the location of the dungeon, they found Captain Cassian, Ambrose, and Talen emerging from it.
In fact, the dungeon’s structure had started sinking back into the ground given that it had been successfully cleared.
The Guild Captains had now come face to face with each other when Katherine asked, "I don’t recall asking for help from Fractured Stars on Ravens Grave assigned missions."
You could tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn’t in approval at all.
"Oh? This dungeon was assigned to your guild?" Cassian replied, feigning ignorance like he didn’t already know.
Every guild master had a comprehensive list of mission requests assigned to each guild, so as to avoid a clash.
"We were passing by the community when its members begged us to deal with it, given that they had maybe a day or two until dungeon break. Wouldn’t want those lives lost due to your guild’s laziness now, would you?" Cassian’s voice and manner of speech was really taunting.
Katherine said nothing except look at him with some degree of annoyance on her face.
"Should you not be thanking us? The mission wasn’t assigned to our guild, so we don’t even gain the stars for clearing it. If anything, we just helped your guild get the stars without taking the risk."
Without another word, he continued on his way with the other mages following behind him as they all proceeded to leave.
Piers then whispered to Aiden, "That’s Talen. He’s the strongest student mage in the Academy."
Aiden had no words except to glance at Talen for a second before returning his eyesight back to Ambrose, especially given that Aiden could sense malicious intent coming from him.
The system highlighted this message when Aiden looked at Ambrose:
[Malice Perception has detected evil intent coming from that boy]
Then almost immediately, a message followed: [Technique Copied: Theft Magic: Mana Steal (B)]
Aiden then noticed that Arianna staggered a bit, was losing consciousness, and was about to fall over. However, with his quick reflexes, he was able to catch her right before she fell completely.
This drew everyone’s attention.
"What happened?" Katherine asked as Aiden tried to help her up.
Kayden was going to do just that too, but Aiden was closer to her at the time and had faster reflexes. This made him retract an arm he had stretched forward in an attempt to swoop in and stop Arianna from falling over.
"I don’t know. I just felt extremely tired from a sudden drop in my mana reserve," Arianna said as she tried to steady herself in Aiden’s arms.
Aiden’s own sights were on Ambrose as they walked back. He thought to himself, "When did he do that?"
Even Aiden hadn’t realized when exactly it happened, but his guess would have been right around when his malice perception passive reacted.
...
While the members of Fractured Stars walked a path to where their horses were tied, Ambrose spoke up: "Captain, I’ve just confirmed the limits of one of my spells."
"When did you? In the dungeon?" Cassian asked.
"No, just now," Ambrose replied, raising and gesturing his thumb backwards to the mages of Ravens Grave who were now at some considerable distance behind them.
Both Cassian and Talen stopped briefly to turn toward them. Seeing as they were all clustered around Arianna, Cassian smiled briefly and nodded his head. As they continued on their way, he asked, "What did you discover?"
Ambrose first explained that he had been trying the spell out the moment they had set their eyes on the members of Ravens Grave.
It was a new spell he had been working on. The mana thieving spell could currently steal mana easily from people who had the same magic rank as he did or lesser, which was why it had worked on Arianna pretty well.
For those on S-rank, it would take some time but was somewhat doable.
However, for those who were above that, it was impossible.
...
Eventually, the members of Ravens Grave had all returned to the Academy.
Not long after they returned did one of the Academy’s servants arrive into the guild’s wing, knocking at the doors of the main room.
The door was opened by one of the mages to see who that was, and the servant then delivered the message to the mage.
The mage then yelled, "Aiden! You have a visitor waiting in the reception!"
Aiden, who had just sat on a seat along with the rest of the initiates, immediately looked up toward the mage yelling and subsequently at the servant who still stood by the door.
He had a puzzled expression on his face for a second because that was way too odd. However, he stood and followed the servant until they reached the reception hall.
Aiden turned toward the seat where the visitors sat and waited to see Alaric, and then his face broke into a smile.
"You were the only guess I had when they told me I had a visitor," Aiden said with a smile on his face as he approached closer to Alaric.
Alaric raised his head toward Aiden, trying to fake a weak smile. "Hey, posh lad..."
Aiden immediately noticed the expression, sat close to him quickly, and asked, "Is there a problem, Alaric?"
"Something’s happened to Ingrid since we came back," Alaric said, then sighed.
"What happened to Ingrid?" Aiden was looking more puzzled at this point.
"Ingrid. She’s pregnant."
"Oh?" Aiden chuckled a bit. "I can understand why that is surprising. I guess Rakan’s going to be a father now?"
"No, Aiden, you’re not understanding. We don’t think this is Rakan’s..." Alaric said with a solemn look on his face.
That was when sudden realization dawned on Aiden’s face. You could see his facial expression go from grinning earlier to utter disbelief instantly. "No... don’t tell me..."
"Yes, we think it might be that demon’s seed..." Alaric confirmed Aiden’s thoughts.
"Bloody hell," Aiden whispered, sounding totally confused and disconcerted. "Where is she?"
"She’s at my home. In fact, Aiden, I reckon yer need to come see this one for yerrself to get how rough it’s looking."
Aiden nodded in agreement.
Without any more words to say, both men left the Academy’s premises immediately and got on Alaric’s horse, which traveled the way toward Alaric’s home.