Luxia immediately arrived at the air above the Aether Hall and slowly descended. Once down, Zaine got off her back and entered the building alone. Vitae popped up before her and greeted.
"Greetings, Madam, and Third Mistress. How was your trip today?" He asked genially.
Eva came out of stealth and felt her lips twitch under her hood. She was convinced that Vitae only popped out to show off that he could detect her. Putting aside the fact that nothing could escape him as the avatar of the Aether Hall, he had a small bit of Draco's bloodline in him.
As such, sniffing her out through that connection was easy as pie.
"It was fine. Where are Hikari and Roma?" Eva asked as she walked towards the Anomaly Realm.
"They are in the master bedroom, entertaining the children. Should I alert them to your arrival?" Vitae inquired formally.
"No, just lead Zaine to them." Eva commanded as she walked through the portal to the Anomaly Realm.
Vitae acknowledged this and Zaine waved to Eva as she rushed to the master bedroom. Though she did not say it, it was clear from her actions that the succubus had greatly missed her son and was dying to hold the little rascal in her arms again.
Eva disappeared for approximately two hours before exiting the Anomaly Realm. Once she came out, she once again manifested no visual changes, but the Bag of Holding was no longer in her possession.
Just what did she do in there exactly?
Eva took in a deep breath and exited the Aether Hall once again. She briefly checked in with Sanji to learn that they had captured two new sectors and he had appointed heads for them while she was away.
This pleased Eva, and she made sure to praise him, a reward Sanji understood was rarer than Dragon Blood from someone like her. As such, he made it a priority to work even harder than before.
Eva summoned Luxia and mounted the Light Phoenix. She commanded her mount to carry her to Cario City, towards the Rank 7 Guild Hall. It took Luxia a single flap of her wings to lead them there.
Riveting Night disembarked from Luxia's back, her hood once again brought up. As always, there was a crowd in front of the Rank 7 Guild Hall, but Riveting Night ignored them and their stares before entering.
She also largely ignored the secretary, as only Draco was amiable enough to greet her. Riveting Night took the elevator to the floor of the Training Hall. There, many members of Umbra were in the midst of spars or practicing their skills in the public area.
When Riveting Night appeared, they all paused and greeted her. This time, she took the time to greet them back and paused to give some fellows a few pointers while chastising others for their failures before entering a private room.
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player stat allocation… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player skills… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player physique… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player equipment… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player techniques… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Analyzing player class paths… ｣
｢System to Player Announcement
Player analysis complete. New options available. Display?
Y/N ｣
Riveting Night took a deep breath as she activated the Rank Promotion screen and saw the same options within as Draco did. There, she obviously chose the second option, which was to Class Up.
｢Void Creator – Class
Rank: Legendary
Success Chance: 0.01%
Price: 1,000,000 platinum｣
｢Heaven's Archmaiden – Class
Rank: Legendary
Success Chance: 0.01%
Price: 1,000,000 platinum｣
｢Supreme Edifier – Class
Rank: Legendary
Success Chance: 0.01%
Price: 1,000,000 platinum per attempt｣
｢Void Devourer – Class
Rank: Epic
Success Chance: 1%
Price: 100,000 platinum per attempt｣
｢Holy Saintess – Class
Rank: Epic
Success Chance: 1%
Price: 100,000 platinum per attempt｣
｢Exorcist – Class
Rank: Epic
Success Chance: 1%
Price: 100,000 platinum per attempt｣
｢Assassin Prime – Class
Rank: Semi-Epic
Success Chance: 10%
Price: 10,000 platinum per attempt｣
｢Shadow Assassin (Rank 2) – Class
Rank: Rare
Success Chance: 70%
Price: Free｣
She hadn't activated her General Aspect because she was curious if the choices presented to her were the same as before. As she clearly saw, there were no changes to the line-up or prices.
After all, she didn't have as many means as Draco did. Her Class Up options were limited to her bloodline and Shadow Assassin class. She did not possess any Divine items of her own either, so she got no Divine choices like Rina and Draco did.
Riveting Night had already come to terms with how she ended up in this situation, but after this heist and acquiring a Divine Class, she planned to change up the situation and work alongside Draco, not behind him.
She restarted the whole process, but flared her General Aspect during the analysis phase for a split second. As such, it wasn't surprising when the class she wanted appeared in this round.
｢Celestial Prime – Class
Rank: Divine
Success Chance: 100%
Price: 1,000,000,000 platinum per attempt｣
She then chose it and paid up the required funds, which took away only 1/5th of her newly, yet ill-gotten wealth. Riveting Night wasn't bothered by this, as the amount of funds really were plentiful.
After a second of processing by the system, she was whisked away into blackness by the usual transition the AI used when players were traveling between worlds.
……….
Borgious and his cohort had returned to the meeting room where they continued their discussion over fine wine and food. They were all jovial, as the price they had paid for the item was truly far too good for its value.
Some even speculated that Umbra had done so on purpose, trying to build a bridge of benefits and relation between the two organizations under wraps. They weren't averse to this, as they could only benefit from a good relationship with Umbra and Draco, not make a loss.
After all, despite their relatively short time of existence, Umbra had even gained the favor of the Church of Light and the War Maniac Pavilion, something they – The Merchant Guild – had been unable to despite being the undisputed world number 3!
How Umbra managed something like that, they did not know. However, one of the members joked that looking at how Umbra managed to get into their good books with this transaction, how could the Church of Light and War Maniac Pavilion play hard?
To this, everyone laughed and agreed in their hearts. That Immortal Adventurer guild always knew what to say or do to get favor from the top powers, and now even they had been successfully wooed.
As each of them silently mused this fact, one of the mages under the employ of the guild entered the room without knocking or showing respect. However, even though she did so, none of the members here complained or even frowned.
Borgious glanced at the newcomer, a light of concern and doubt flashing in his eyes as he inquired: "To what do we owe the pleasure, Grandmaster Olivia?"
The one called Grandmaster Olivia was a young woman who looked to be 16-19 years old, with lovely pink hair tied into a bun, creamy skin, and sharp eyes similar to Keira or Natasha.
She had a slightly above average sized nose and slightly thick lips, a think neck, and quite a svelte figure. She wasn't bursting at the seams with endless curves, but her robe definitely showed that she was quite the looker.
On the matter of her robe, it was less like the formal attire for mages, and more like a ball dress for queens, only less flamboyant and colorful. She had quite a bit of jewelry on her arms, fingers, chest, and neck that made her seem like a rich noblewoman.
All-in-all, she gave the impression of a rich and powerful woman who was capable of handling all financial affairs of a business or company that was multinational.
As someone extremely skilled in matters involving money, she had worked her way up to become the head of the accounting department, granting her a special position in the guild. Aside from that she also had taken on the workload as the head of the security department because…
"What happened to my little brother? Why have you done nothing about it?" Olivia asked in a dark tone.
The elders of the Merchant Guild shared a look and chuckled. "Just that? With you here, how can we allow Mind Mage Dawson suffer a loss? Shouldn't you know best of all that with our wealth, healing him from any damage is a piece of cake?"
As Borgious questioned her behavior, he sipped on his wine lazily. It wasn't that they didn't care about Mind Mage Dawson, but no matter what he was suffering from, even death itself, they had enough money and means at their disposal to bring him back if they so choose.
Olivia knew this too, yet she had come here to question them, which made Borgious feel that something was off.
Olivia glanced at them coldly. "Good! In that case, I want you all to wake him up from the psychic coma he has been put under."
One of the elders seemed lost by her words. "Psychic coma? If that's the case, then even you should be able to…"
As the elder spoke this far, his voice trailed off as his face became white. The others also displayed looks of shock and dismay as they understood the implications of Olivia coming here herself to tell them this instead of saving her brother first.
Borgious put away his wine and became solemn. "As a powerful Mind Mage, you are unable to rouse your brother with all your means?"
Olivia snorted coldly, clearly barely concealing her fury. "If I could, would I need to stand in front of you… you people and ask for your involvement?"
It was clear that she was about to call them something that couldn't be taken back, but she had enough grasp on her emotions to stop herself beforehand. Seeing at how close to erupting she was, Borgious stood up.
"Take us to him." He commanded gravely.
Olivia did not reply but directly complied, leading the Guildmaster and the elders of the Merchant Guild to the room of her little brother, where he lay on his canopy bed in peaceful sleep.
Truly, it looked like the fellow was having a good nap rather than being in a coma, but these elders were no fools. They were able to see some sort of strange energy wrapping around his cranium, like a mental barrier of sorts.
"Have you gotten any professional psychics to look at him?" Borgious asked silently.
Olivia nodded. "I did."
Borgious asked further: "And what was their verdict?"
Olivia smiled coldly. "They had none."
The elders looked at each other with puzzlement. What did she mean by they had none?
Olivia didn't explain. She simply called one of the low-tier guards to come into the room. She then pointed to her little brother. "Pry open his eyes and assess them for me."
"Right away, Grandmaster." The guard hurriedly answered and did as he was told. The moment he pried apart Mind Mage Dawson's eyelids and gazed into the fellow's dark blue eyes, a white light shot into the guard's eyes, and he immediately slumped over. He was fast asleep, breathing lightly like he was some form of slumbering beauty.
Olivia smirked towards the elders of the guild. "As you can see, the slightest attempt to assist my brother ends up with that person being put under the same curse as he is. This curse does not discriminate and cannot be stopped, even the most powerful psychics we've hired fell under its spell."
Her smile dispersed into a grave expression that made the elders of the guild feel worried. "From what I know and can see, this is an almost Divine-tier Psychic Curse. On its own, this would be troublesome but not impossible to fix with the means we have but…"
"This Psychic Curse is infectious. What we have is the mental equivalent to the bubonic plague, a mental disease that could render billions of people useless if they're infected."
