Epic Of The Demonic Sage

There was a knocking on the door that woke Lucius up from his sleep.

"Pardon me, Lord Asher? Are you awake? I will be coming in." Neta said.

Lucius was often woken up by Kiana, but this time, she seemed to have left him in the care of one of the few people in the Inanis household that bore the mark of obedience.

Lucius had never really gotten to placing mark of obedience on everyone, except for the ones in the re education center.

This was a small reminder of something that Lucius needed to come around to, although most, if not all of the servants were loyal to the Inanis family, which made it unnecessary for him to do so, unless they personally served him.

Either way, he was curious to know what happened for the sudden change of the person waking him up today.

"What is it?" Lucius sat up from bed and waited for the servant to come in.

Neta stepped inside and Lucius was quickly offered by a basin of water by the man. "The reason why I'm here is to inform you that Gellor and his mercenary group are back, my lord."

"Is that so? That's good news. I'd like them to be brought over while I get ready for the day."

Lucius quickly washed the sleep away from his eyes and couldn't help but be pleased with their arrival. It was quite the right timing.

"Miss Kiana believed that you'd request for them right away and has them waiting already, my lord." Neta informed.

Lucius nodded. It was quite good when you didn't need to give someone orders and the person in question simply made the right call when it came to certain situations like this one.

"Alright, I'll be out shortly. Thank you, Neta." Lucius said.

"Of course, my lord." Neta bowed and quickly left Asher to his own devices.

Normally, a servant like Neta was tasked to take care of everything from waking up to dressing up a noble but Asher preferred to mostly do things by himself if given the opportunity to do so.

Lucius watched the servant leave and for a moment, gauged the man.

He conducted the gift upgrade on Neta previously just to see the Nexus' ability on different ranked gifts, but other than that, the new gift was more or less underutilized by Lucius himself.

"Well, it's not a waste of resources when I can always get some more." Lucius said, but made a small promise to find a use for the servant if there was anything else possible.

It was good to have one to serve him, but having multiple uses was always better.

When Lucius came out of his room, he was quickly escorted to the room where Gellor and his mercenaries were waiting.

Similar to last time, they still seemed a little bit out of place in the luxury of the Inanis house but quickly stood to attention when Lord Asher stepped in and paid respects to him.

"Greetings, Lord Asher!" they greeted in unison.

"Thank you for the greetings, but let's sit down and get to business, shall we?" Lucius said.

Respectfully, Gellor and his men quickly sat down again while Lucius took a momentary assessment of their physical state and was pleased to see that they were all together and relatively fine.

There were instances of bandages here and there, but they didn't seem to be that injured. And most importantly, no one was missing.

'More or less, at full capacity.' Lucius thought.

"Now, can you inform me how the mission went? I trust that things are well since you've returned safe." Lucius said.

"It went excellently, Lord Asher." Gellor replied. "The information that you provided for us worked perfectly and allowed us to successfully complete the mission without any hindrances. We were able to make use of Finch's gift during the Mist Veil Beasts alongside Barty's Air Votex. "

"That's good to hear, things turned out well due to your group's ability to follow the instructions after all." Lucius said.

If they were incompetent enough to have failed the task even after everything that Lucius had provided them, he would have considered the fact of hiring them as a mistake on his part.

"Thank you, Lord Asher. Let us now present to you the results of our mission." Gellor cleared his throat and carefully took out some items from his bag.

These were the rune crystals that even the Artificer's Guild had trouble obtaining and it was something that pleased Lucius to see as he accepted them from Gellor.

He used the Nexus on it to check, and was quickly informed of its identity and quality.

"Three Mist Veil Beasts Rune Crystals and all in perfect condition. An outstanding job, Gellor. Thank you for your hard work."

"We owe Finch's recovery to you, Lord Asher. This is the least that we could do for you." Gellor said along with the agreement of the other members of the team.

Finch herself seemed to blush at the sudden mention of her name and gingerly curtsied in front of the young lord. "Yes, we are in your debt. If you are to need Mist Veil Beasts' Rune Crystals again, we would gladly go to retrieve them once more."

"At the moment, I have no more need for these crystals, but I'll let you guys know when I am in need of them again." Lucius said, then eyed them again. "On the contrary, it seems like you all still managed to sustain injuries, despite the information I provided."

"These are nothing, Lord Asher. Just a few scratches that'll heal on their own." Gellor said. "In fact, these are quite light compared to what we might obtain on other missions. We're very fortunate with the information you provided for us."

Lucius nodded. "Your words are reasonable, Gellor. However, it's actually in my best interest to have all of you healed. I'll be again in need of you and your team soon, so it's far better to be in optimum condition."