Although he should have been shocked by Sarah's response, Aiden only smiled with a strange, satisfactory, contentious grin stretching on his face. He was glad, he felt happy as this was a chance for him to test his full power, and maybe, just maybe gain new insights to himself as well. The last time he had the chance to go full power was quite a long time ago, he felt increasingly bored with this human city.

If the dangers of the main quest wouldn't be looming over his head, he would have long returned to his family or maybe he would have gone much deeper into the seemingly endless forest and uncovered more of its mysteries. Or he could have decided to go beyond the borders of this Kingdom, and just explore new heights and also increase his repertoire of life forms. After all, as he matured, he felt this need, this thirst for more power, for more life essences. Going stale and just living the life of a lowly human went against his very basic instincts. Not just his dominant Ancient Dragon genes, but even his usually silent Primal ones.

So, when Sarah revealed that the newest mission that she was assigned to and was asking, no, begging for his help was rated to at least being a 4-star difficulty or maybe bordering the 5-stars… He was happy.

Nodding his head, he tried his hardest to hide his wide and expectant grin, without much success.

"I see." Looking at the paper one last time, he managed to calm his nerves and return his expression to his usual calm and collected outlook. He looked at the girl, who obviously noticed his excitement that was visible on his face for just a moment as she was also grinning at him knowingly and he asked. "So, when do we have to set out? How long will this quest be expected to take? You do know that we will need to be present for the big event happening in a week's time, and I also want to explore the Grotto, as that was my primary goal for even coming to this city in the first place."

"Tomorrow, early morning." Sarah replied with a smile on her face. "Go and support your friend for now, and just tell him you will be gone for a few days, starting tomorrow on a Special Assignment from the guild. Get to the eastern exit by sunrise tomorrow, I will be waiting for you there. Will that work?"

"Okay, see you in the morning then, Sarah." Aiden spoke as he turned around and walked out of her office. As soon as he closed the door, he heard the familiar sound of a notification popping up in his system.

Bringing the note up, in front of his view, he smiled as what he expected had happened. The system automatically created a mission for him.

[New Optional Quest: Thwart the Invasion - Part 1

Difficulty: B-D

Objective: - Find proof about a possible invasion of the hordes (0/1)

Optional: ???

Rewards: ???]

Although slightly surprised by the return of the question marks and the hidden details of the quest, he wasn't too surprised. After all, the quest was rated to being a possible B difficulty, and from the name, it seemed that the system already planned at least one follow-up after completing this stage.

However, as he kept thinking, a scary thought crossed his mind; how does the system know about this? Does it have some sort of divine power and have information about the future? Or maybe even more than one possible outcome? Where does its information come from? Previously, he thought that it was Enya that supplied most of the data to the system, but with her still being out of commission and would be for the foreseeable future, Aiden didn't know what to think anymore.

'Maybe the reason I received the Main Quest to investigate that strange place is related to the system's mystery?' Thinking about it more, this theory seemed to be more and more plausible. Bringing it up, he checked on its timer, as he took more than he expected to finally find out more about the place in question.

As the quest details appeared in front of him, Aiden heaved a sigh in relief seeing that he still had more than enough time to complete this 'Special Assignment' from the Lady with the mask and participate in the idiotic, pointless play to decide the outcome for the City Lord's elections before he would embark on this dangerous journey.

'Alright, let's go back, Cole must be on the verge of tears by now.' He thought, smiling at himself, as he began to cross through the office halls and get back to his friends.

---

As the door closed behind Aiden and Sarah was left alone in her office once more, she let out a tired sigh as she slumped back on her chair. Pulling back the decorated letter from her mother, she turned towards the window, her thoughts racing a million miles per hour.

'Just what is it that you are planning, Mistress? Why would you need us to handle this matter? You have more than enough capable men at your disposal to do something trivial such as this…' Whilst she didn't show it when Aiden was present, Sarah was full of questions herself about the sudden assignment. It made no sense to her as to why would the Mistress, suddenly send them this letter. Even more puzzling was the fact of asking her to team up with Aiden and investigate the situation together.

The Masked Lady, The Mistress, was someone who was living in the shadows for years now; she had a very skilled army of spies she could have sent out to get every important detail she would have needed. Even if they would be unable to deal with the situation themselves, they would still report back the information via the Communication Crystals they all carried.

Her ignoring this, perfectly safe and surefire route and sending the request for her to personally attend to this assignment was suspicious, to say the least. Just what could her plan be? She wanted to find out more, but Sarah knew that it would be pointless to go back to the mansion and ask. If the Mistress didn't state it in her letter, she would not say a word.

Letting out another long, tired sigh, she carefully folded the paper and put it into the top drawer next to the scarce collection of similar letters. She never said it out loud, or let it show on her face, but she treasured these messages or every memento from the mistress dearly. Just like the unique, special moment when she hugged her during their last meeting, she treasured every moment when her Mistress thought of her as her daughter.

Suddenly, as she was still lost in her thoughts looking at the treasured contents of the drawer, the air in front of the desk began to buzz and vibrate in a very high frequency. A few moments later, the air began to blur, as a crude spatial tear began to form, revealing an endless void in its depths.

Amidst the depths, a black-clothed feminine figure stepped out, her face covered with a balaclava, a sort of headscarf or bandanna wrapped not just around her head but in front of her mouth as well. Only her piercing, green eyes were visible, not revealing much about the person at all.

She silently walked forward and placed another letter with similar lavish designs and golden threads decorating the edges throughout.

Placing the letter in front of the surprised girl, she quickly turned around and left through the same spatial tear as she came, not giving Sarah any chance to react or say a word. As soon as her figure vanished through the endless void, the particles around the hole began to buzz with excitement, glowing in bright white light as they began to repair the tear in space. The spatial rift began to rapidly shrink, closing, vanishing from existence just a second later.

As the rift closed and space returned to its original state in just a few mere moments, Sarah also awakened from her sudden shocked induced stupor, and eagerly pulled the new letter in front of her. This was, after all, another letter sent by the Mistress, whatever its contents were, it was already regarded as a precious treasure, the newest addition to the collection of mementos sent to her.

Her hands shook with excitement as she grabbed the paper and carefully unfolded it to take a look at its contents. A moment later, her face blushed, her eyes watered as she read it through. It was phrased much differently than the others. This was sent not by the Mistress, but by the Mother...

"Dear Sarah,

As you head out tomorrow, make sure to stay safe. Rely on the boy for most of the problems that would undoubtedly arise in your quest. He is capable, much stronger than you would give him credit for. Befriend him, get closer to him, it would be beneficial for your future.

After all, he is a good match for you, my dear daughter.

Your mother,

Gloria Rox"