At this critical moment.
The carriage curtain was pulled aside, and Lina stepped out at an unhurried pace. By now, she had already changed into her mage's robe; holding her staff with a gentle smile on her face, she carried the distinct air of a noble lady.
Reaching into her robes, Lina retrieved a scroll embossed with gilded patterns and stamped with an exclusive family crest, extending it toward the guard captain. The parchment was of fine quality with neat, elegant grain, clearly nothing like an ordinary commission slip.
“No need to search. Go on in,” the guard captain said in a steady voice, waving his hand to signal the guards to let them pass.
“Thank you for your understanding.” Lina calmly took back the commission, folded it, and tucked it into her robes. The smile remained on her face, but internally she breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
Kate immediately flicked the reins, and the carriage started up slowly, passing through the city gate.
Once inside the city, the companions in the carriage exchanged glances, all letting out sighs of relief before breaking into poorly concealed smiles.
The carriage did not follow the main thoroughfare toward the central district, where the Adventurers' Guild, inns, and taverns bustled with lively activity even at dusk. Instead, it swerved, turning into a street virtually devoid of pedestrians.
The party had agreed long beforehand that under no circumstances would they head to the guild upon entering the city. To say nothing of how the crude, simplistic concealment inside the carriage would be meaningless before the guild's round-the-clock detection array, the central district was a gathering place for the powerful; before they could even get close, someone would likely notice something amiss.
The farther south into the city they traveled, the quieter the streets became. Devoid of bustling shops, taverns, or slender dancing girls, no adventurers ever graced this area with their presence.
Scattered, low-slung old wooden houses, stone walls draped in green vines, and quiet, narrow alleys—even patrolling guards rarely set foot here. Yet in the air lingered a faint fragrance of herbs and an almost imperceptible trace of magic.
This was the southern district of Greystone City, a secluded neighborhood that did not even possess a name.
Ultimately, the carriage halted before a freestanding small wooden cabin deep in the alley.
The cabin was plain and weathered, its walls covered in climbing green vines, with rows of dried herbs and glass potion vials lining the windowsill. There was no sign or marking at the entrance; any ordinary passerby would merely assume it to be the dwelling of a common herbalist.
Lina was the first to hop down from the carriage. Raising her hand, she gently knocked on the wooden door three times and called out softly, “Sister Elise!” Her voice carried a trace of excitement.
Silence hung inside for a moment before the sound of a closing book drifted out. Then, with a creak, the old wooden door swung open on its own.
“Oh, so Little Lina is here. Come on in.”
Lina walked briskly into the cabin, an uncontrollable smile playing across her face.
She and the owner of this cabin had first met when taking on one of her commissions. A shared fondness for tea had unexpectedly turned the two of them into good friends.
The layout inside was exceedingly simple, with neatly arranged tables, chairs, and bookshelves. The air held a mingled scent of magical herbs, stardust grass, and aged parchment.
“Tell me, what has made our Little Lina so happy?”
Just as Lina sat down, a cup of freshly brewed black tea drifted gently through the air onto her table, followed by a soft, feminine voice.
Holding a teacup, a woman sat down across from her. She looked quite young, her skin delicate and lustrous, with long hair shimmering in a frosty, snow-like grayish white. A wide-brimmed mage hat rested steadily atop her head, its brim casting a faint shadow that veiled half of her youthful, delicate face.
Elise, a witch temporarily residing in Greystone City. Her class rank had already reached the Eighth-Tier, though she displayed only Seventh-Tier strength to the outside world.
“Sister must have noticed already, haven't you?”
Lina cupped the beverage that hailed from the distant Eastern Continent—a luxury only nobles had the privilege to enjoy—and took a small sip. She cast a glance toward the carriage outside, then looked unblinkingly at the witch.
“A dragon egg? Hmm... a red dragon egg!”
...
Night had fallen completely. Surprisingly, there were exceptionally many stars in the sky tonight, shining extraordinarily bright.
The carriage slowly drove away from the cabin. The party members tried their best to suppress their grins, but soft chuckles still escaped from the carriage from time to time.
Their joy was naturally due to the dimensional bag the witch had gifted Lina, as well as the items exchanged for the red dragon egg inside it:
Four pouches of gold coins whose combined weight equaled that of the dragon egg, four magic potions to aid advancement, four class advancement scrolls, and a several-month supply of healing potions, mana restoration potions, and battle aura restoration potions.
All these items combined were enough for them to advance two tiers.
(For class advancement, one could first rely on accumulated battle aura, mana, and personal understanding and insight into one's class—which was for diligent, grounded individuals and so-called geniuses. Secondly, when insufficiently prepared, one could rely on the aid of magic potions. Lastly, when completely unprepared, there was what could still be used directly—class advancement scrolls. All of these could aid advancement. As for whether relying on external items caused a disparity in combat strength? Well, my tier is higher than yours anyway!)
Oh, and there were also those beautiful crystals and a pile of gold coins brought out from the dragon's lair.
“Captain, where are we heading next? Lilith Inn, or...?”
The warrior Kate's questioning voice came from outside the carriage.
All at once, the laughter inside the carriage ceased, and the carriage gradually slowed until it came to a halt.
When carrying immense wealth, keep a low profile—this was a truth every living adventurer understood. The service and lodging at Lilith Inn in the central district went without saying, but there were too many eyes and ears, and lately many powerful figures had arrived in the city, putting the party in a dilemma.
“How about Old Sam's Inn?” the usually taciturn dwarf shield guardian Bol offered his opinion. “The owner has half-dwarf blood. He's just not much of a smooth talker, so business is on the slower side. But foot traffic is sparse over there, and guards patrol the area, so safety is guaranteed.”
“Mm... Sister Elise mentioned that something major will happen in Greystone City soon and advised us to leave as early as possible.” Lina rested her chin in her hand, seemingly pondering something.
“We'll go to Old Sam's Inn. Everyone get in top shape and prepare to advance. With enough potions and class advancement scrolls, five days should be plenty. After five days, we leave Greystone City. As for where to go, we can decide then.”
“Understood! We'll follow the captain's lead.”
Her three teammates answered in unison.
As for Viscount Cullen's quest, let it scatter with the night wind.
In the south of the city, inside the small wooden cabin.
The light of a magic crystal on the ceiling illuminated the entire room. Elise sat at her desk, ceaselessly flipping through an ancient tome in her hands. With a flick of her slender fingers, pages rustled past in rapid succession, leaving behind only blurred streaks of ink. Scanning ten lines at a glance, she seemed to be searching for something among the yellowed pages.
Archaic books from the bookshelves fluttered around her like butterflies; as soon as one was finished, another automatically stopped before her.
Witch was one of the many classes on the Continent of Veland. Of course, becoming a witch also required talent, but before formally stepping into the ranks of practitioners, that talent was truly terrifying.
From birth, witches seemed destined to bring calamity upon the world, inflicting misfortune on those around them. For this reason, they were reviled and spat upon, forced from a young age to face the fate of abandonment, and few survived long enough to formally take up the class.
Once they succeeded, however, their horrifying magical talent allowed them to learn virtually every type of magic, and the field that brought misfortune to others could be controlled at will.
After formally becoming practitioners, hardly anyone was willing to offend them. Yet the treatment endured since childhood also made them prone to developing extreme personalities.
“How strange. The ancient texts have no record of this kind of red dragon egg at all.”
Closing the final book, Elise placed it on the desk and walked slowly toward the dragon egg.
At this moment, the red dragon egg lay on a magical rug before the window. Starlight from the night sky shone onto the surface of the shell, revealing patterns like the stars above, seemingly absorbing the starlight.
Elise did not draw too close. With a gentle tap of her staff, magical patterns began to surface on the rug beneath the dragon egg, glowing increasingly bright near the egg and adjusting the ambient temperature to the level best suited for incubating a red dragon egg.
Then, a notebook abruptly appeared in the witch's hand, while the staff in her other hand transformed into a quill as she began recording the dragon egg's current state:
Rate on N.U.
