"Hahahaha! What an idiot! Poor Seeker. To think he hadn't heard about the Ancient incident at the eastern world tree... No, wait, maybe he had heard about it, but didn't believe that an S-ranked Foxkin was pivotal in the battle against Ythmagobla," Sarah speculated as she chugged a pint of dwarven ale.

'So she even knows about that? She must have some powerful information gatherers at her disposal,' Lone thought as he shrugged his shoulders. "It worked out for me in the end."

"I can see that. Damned Ascendings... You guys are as rare as the Ancients themselves, but your ability to ignore enlightenment makes even me jealous, and I'm a Divine, for God's sake," Sarah admitted with a big smile on her chiselled face.

The kids would have been shocked by such a bombshell being dropped had Lone not already explained what an Ascending was to them when he was recreating Swind's body.

"'God's sake'?" Lone wore a quizzical expression.

Sarah scratched her cheek harmlessly. "Habit. I picked it up in my youth from an otherworlder. Those guys are rare, but not that rare."

Lone glanced at Hazel who nodded to indicate that the woman wasn't telling a lie. He was quite sensitive regarding otherworlders after what had happened in Milindo With Daisuke Tamiko. Of course, he was also worried about the safety of Hazel, Alisa and Scott.

"What kind of otherworlder were they?" Lone asked to drive the conversation a little bit.

Sarah yawned as she chugged a pint of strong alcohol. "He was an asshole. An Arrogant asshole, but he was like a brother to me. I cried like a fucking baby when he left. Though mind you, this happened ages ago."

"Left? Could you explain that to me?" Lone hadn't expected this. Perhaps he was about to get some information on how to return to Earth?

His current plan was to just get powerful enough to find and defeat the gods that had brought Soph and him to Altros before squeezing the method to travel between worlds from them. He also had a back-up plan, but that plan hinged on a theory of his and was far less likely to succeed short-term.

Sarah grinned. "That's valuable info. I'll trade it to you though?"

Lone frowned. "What do you want?"

"The intel on Gilbert as well as for The Wanderers to accept and complete six S-ranked quests, two SS-ranked quests, two X-ranked quests and then a single war-ranked quest," Sarah said as she started and promptly finished her fifth pint since their conversation had begun.

"Is the info of 'left''s meaning really worth that much?" He glanced at Hazel once more, hoping that perhaps she already knew what Sarah meant by 'left'. He was met with a disappointed face and a shake of the head.

Sarah shrugged. "Not really, but you want to raise your adventurer plate's rank and gain fame, right? Also, the war-ranked quest involves the Crimson Foxkin Clan, the home of our little friend hiding in your shadow."

No one was surprised by a Divine-ranked being having the ability to feel Breena's presence. The girl herself was a bit vexed and swore to herself that she'd train harder to be able to fool even Divine-level beings.

"What? Explain that to me, please." Lone had heard about the war between the human-led kingdoms and the Beastman Alliance, but he hadn't heard of it boiling to a point where adventurers were being hired to fight in it.

"I've already sent Sloth of The Seven Deadly Sins adventurer group. She'll probably take Envy and maybe Wrath with her, but I'm a bit worried. She tends to take things too far to end her quests as soon as possible and come home to laze around. You don't need to accept the war-ranked quest, but it'd put my mind - and probably yours - at ease," Sarah explained.

Lone tapped his chin thoughtfully. 'I left a communication orb with Lossa, didn't I? Why didn't she contact me if the war was starting? Hmm... I'll have to contact her from my end soon to figure things out. I can't exactly let them fight a war when I promised that I'd help them if they needed my power.'

"Okay, that's fine. You're right. One of my main goals here is to gather fame and have chances to talk to powerful people like yourself," Lone said before he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a fist-sized emerald orb. "This is linked to an orb I gave to Gilbert. You can talk to him with it. To give you the long and short of it, he's currently trapped in the Northern Ocean with two dwarves. They're all safe though."

Sarah took the device and gave it a once over before she whistled in admiration. "Is this an original design? I've never seen a communication orb like this before."

Lone nodded. "I made it myself. I can make them smaller like the ones here," he said as he lightly tapped one of the legs on his mechanical glasses which was lined with tiny communication orbs. "Ones like that are far cheaper to make though," he added as he pointed at the one he'd handed to Sarah.

"Even though they're bigger? How does that work?" the grand guildmaster asked.

Lone smirked. "Trade secret."

"Hahaha, fair 'nuff." The grand guildmaster got out of her chair and downed a final mug of ale before she cracked her back and said, "Well, I've got almost no mana, so I'm off to get one of my employees to use this for me. I'm actually a pretty busy woman, so only ask for me at the front desk once you've done those quests, 'kay?"

"Will do. It was nice to meet you, Sarah," Lone said. The rest of The Wanderers, as well as the kids, all said their goodbyes as well.

"You have no idea, Patches. Seeya later." With that said, the muscled woman left.

"That was surprising. I was honestly expecting her to offer us protection from the Church for killing Cross," Eolande confessed.

Hazel shook her head. "The thought crossed her mind, but she instantly told herself it would be a waste of time since we - or more specifically, Lone - doesn't need her help."

Soph filled her arms with her fluffy friends and she rubbed them against her face, "You aren't patchy, you're perfect."

Ignoring the fluffaholic, Lone downed his drink and replied, "Well, she's not wrong. We'll be fine. Even if they try to attack you guys to get to me, you just need to put mana into those orbs I gave you guys or crush them, and then Soph'll bring me to you immediately."

"She thought you could do something like that," Hazel noted. "That woman... She's very intelligent."

George nodded. "Well, she is the grand guildmaster of the Adventurer's Guild. You can't just found a continent-wide company like that without having some brains."

"Yup. That's definitely true," Lone said. He looked at his sister and asked her, "So, when you girls returned to The Academy, did Headmaster Erion send for Soph and me?"

Emma nodded. "Kinda. The student council president told us that Headmaster Erion would like it if you two came to The Academy early, but he's also happy if you two only come after the summer break ends. That's when the new applicants can take the entrance exam. Ah, that's in two weeks, by the way."

Hazel sighed. "Not like you'll need to take them since you're unofficial disciples of his anyway."

Alisa pouted. "That's so unfair though. I wish I was his disciple. Then I'd actually be able to learn about space magic."

"We'll wait," Lone said. "It might gather some unwanted attention, but we'll get way more famous if we do the tests and ace them. I'm assuming the tests are practical, yeah? Regardless, Breena, Eolande and Swind will be taking the normal tests too, so it'll be better if we all do it as a group."

"Yeah, the tests are practical. Entry tests, at least. They test your potential; if that's high enough, they let you in no matter what. After that, they test your casting skills and the strength of whatever you can actually cast. Written tests are only if you want to advance in the years," Hazel explained.

"Sounds easy enough." Lone's off-hand comment made both George and Scott feel incredibly bad since neither of them could wield mana or had much potential to do so in the future.

Noticing the slightly downcast looks on the boys' faces, Lone grinned. "Don't be sore losers. Look at the grand guildmaster. She has so little magic, she may as well have none, but she's a Divine and owns a place like this. You said so yourself only a few minutes ago, after all."

"Y-Yeah," George meekly replied.

Scott scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly.

"Anyway, if you're all fed and watered, shall we go do a quest?" Lone's smile was seemingly innocent, but his thoughts gave his sister goosebumps. 'It shouldn't be that hard to have them fight a monster that vastly outranks them and have them not die, right? They need to gain enlightenment ASAP so I don't need to protect them as much. It'd be great if they could all become at least A-rankers within a week, though that's definitely asking too much considering that their bodies need to get adjusted each rank up. Let's aim for C-rankers. That's doable.'

Without knowing what they were getting themselves into, Emma, Alisa, Scott and George all willingly agreed while Hazel begrudgingly followed the will of her friends.

Lone's group was getting a lot of funny looks by their fellow adventurers, mostly from those below B-rank, which was hundreds of humans and demis alike.

Currently, they were stood in front of or near the S-ranked quest board. This board in particular only had five requests on it; two of which were local.

"Hmm... I think we can do them both today... Okay. I'll just take 'em both then," Lone confidently spoke aloud before he unpinned the quest papers in question and turned around. His destination was a reception desk to register that he had accepted these two S-ranked quests.

Unfortunately, his time was being wasted by a disturbance. A group of five fully-armoured women and one dressed in tight-fitting robe blocked his path.

Quickly gauging their power, he could tell that they were all C-rankers while the girl was a D-ranker, which confused him greatly. 'Are they bothering me for the quests? Surely they can't be thinking about taking on an S-ranked quest at their levels? Well... They don't seem particularly angry... I guess I should hear them out first before speculating much more on my own?'

"Can I help you girls?" he asked.

At the same time, Lone felt Soph's grip on his tails tighten. "Six young girls... Three of them have flat chests..." She almost let out a growl, but she'd managed to contain it. Sophie was ready to take control at any point should the girls make a move on her and Soph's fluff god.

"Em, yeah. You're really strong, right? I heard about what happened at the Merchant's Guild," the apparent leader of the girls - the robe-wearing one - asked.

Lone nodded. "Yup. Incredibly strong. Why?"

Eolande giggled. "So arrogant..."

"Uh... I saw you taking those quests, and, um, I was kinda wondering if you could let us tag along?" She pulled her wooden-plate out from her cleavage and showed it to Lone. "We're new. I'm a student at The Academy and I'm trying to get some battle experience with my knights, but, um, all of the low-level quests are too easy and none of the higher-ranked adventurers are willing to take a noble like me along with them on a dangerous quest. I just figured I'd ask? You know, try my luck?"

Lone shook his head. "Not these quests. Maybe another day? I appreciate your sincerity for a noble, though, despite me being a demi. I promise I'll give you girls a hand another day, 'kay?"

The robed girl's above-average face lit up into a radiant smile. "Thanks! I honestly didn't expect anything, so this is way better! My name's Cecilia Inglewood. Here's the address of my home, so drop by when you feel up to escorting me on a high-ranking quest, okay? My father will definitely reward you for your efforts."

"Hmm..." Eolande tapped her chin thoughtfully as she watched the girl wander off towards a group accepting an A-ranked quest, presumably to ask the same thing of them as she had of Lone. "Nice girl, all thing's considered."

Emma was a bit surprised. "Don't you hate nobles after what happened in Milindo, Lone?"

Shaking his head, he replied, "Of course not. I'm an advocate for equality. It'd be wrong of me to label all nobles as racist and arrogant scum. The culture's to blame, not the people. Those that overcome that and wind up as decent people in the end are worthy of my respect, like you, George, and that girl."

Scott tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Is that why you agreed to help her?"

"Partially, yes. I mostly agreed though because having the help of a noble's family or two can't hurt us, right? I definitely want to do something about the underground slavery rings in this country, and if the current royalty is behind some of that, then I'll have to change that, now won't I?" Lone was implying some very frightening things with that rhetorical question of his.