VOLCANO SALAMANDER
After that, he would do push-ups for an hour then use healing magic, he did this for over 14 hours. I should've done more that 12 000 by now no? He asked breathing heavily.
Not even close brat, you've barely done 4300 so get back to it. No I can't I have to go. You go when I tell you to go, she said her face stioc and intimidating but he did not flinch.
I made a promise and I always keep my promises. You also promised to do 12 000 push-ups did you not? No I did not, you the one who forced me to do that.
They looked each other in the eye without a word for a few seconds. Hahaha, brat, I'm liking you more and more, you're right, a real man always keep his promise, so go to that mission with those snotty brats.
How did...? I know? I'm the vise guild master you brat, I know everything. You're been spying on me haven't you? Whaaaat? No, ofcourse not, I would never do something so distasteful.
Yeeah, I'm gonna go now, he said backing up, looking at her like she is some creep. She just stood there with a foolish grin. He met up with the others on the guild.
They had luggages. You did not tell me I had to pack. I did not? He nodded. Damn, must've forgotten, you should go pack. He sighed and left.
He came back a few minutes later with a bag, he was dressed in leather armour. He still could not figure out how to put his mantle of the dark spawn in his soul space so it was still in tatters.
Alrighty time to go, they left in a coach, their coachman was a young looking fella who seems like a peoples person. He was very talkative.
Cathra briefed him on the mission. They were supposed to retrieve some sort of flame attribute stone that grows on the forehead of a lava salamander.
The issue is,it only useful when extracted while the salamander was alive. Normally this would be taken by E rank adventurers but the pay was too attractive to pass up, plus with priors dealing with E rank they were given special permission. Night came and they set camp. The coach guy whose name is Felix kept on talking.
Telling them about how he also wanted to be an adventurer once but the class choises he got made that impossible. How he is saving money to start his own merchant caravan.
He was a friendly fella, annoyingly so but it seemed Iron liked his stories, he would sit there intently listening and nodding to everything Felix said.
By morning they continued their journey. The destination was only a few hours away now. They were headed for the volcano forest. It was a place filled with multiple volcanoes each taller than the last.
The volcano salamanders were one of the rulers of this place, it is said a salamander that had reached C rank lives in the middle volcano, one of the three tallest and hottest volcanoes there.
Their lava was so hot it had turned white, however they had competition from two other beasts. Red beak eagle and Flowing Rock serpents.
Ofcourse they were after the young salamanders that live in the outer ridges of the volcanoes. They would not dare attempt to mess with adult salamanders.
Infact there was another reason killing them was advised against, other than the fact that killing them would render the stone useless,it would also alert the adults salamanders and you did not want that.
Some reached D rank when they become adults but even if they were still E rank they were much stronger than most E rank creatures, they did have the blood of dragons in them after all.
Before the sun fall they could already see the volcanoes a few kilometres away. The number of beasts around here were high so finding a peaceful place to rest was hard.
Shut up, Cathra said to Felix, your voice might draw attention. Felix lowered his voice but did not keep quiet, it like he would die if he stopped talking.
Noel had never someone so talkative before. The plan was to attack in the cover of the night sky but before then Cathra casted a barrier to make sure Felix does not get devoured while there are gone.
They had to be fast, if it screams and alert the others they would be doomed. They watched the creatures go to sleep in caves. They ranges from G rank to E rank, sleeping in large groups.
They were really large lizards, even the G rank one could reach an adults human waist in height and was about 3 metres from snout to tail.
Red scales covered their entire bodies. Red glowing crystals adorned their foreheads like a third eye. Some, especially the young G rank ones did not have these crystals but some did.
How many do we need? He asked. There is no specified amount,technically this mission does not have an expiration date. As long as you can bring them you are good to go.
So we can also bring the G rank ones? Yes but they will pay less. He nodded. So how many should we take. We should take them all, said Victor with a greedy look.
We can't do that, it would be too dangerous, if they are alerted we are dead, replied Cathra,I do have a spell that can put them to deep sleep but it can only work on one at a time for E ranks.
We should start low, with the weaker and easier ones, less risky and if something does go wrong we won't go empty handed. Cathra nodded while Victor grumbled.
He is too greedy, Noel thought. Cathra casted her spell on the weaker of them. Their breathing became even softer than before. They were peaceful.
Noel sneaked closer to it and extracted the stone, it felt nothing. She continued putting more of them to sleep, in about 3 minutes they had already extracted over 11 G rank and 7 F rank stones but not even one E rank.
She continued casting her spell, she was then successful into putting one E rank into deep sleep, it took longer, much longer to put it to sleep. They continued for about 5 hours.
They had extracted about 5 E rank stones and a lot more of the lower ranks one. Noel turned around and saw Victor sneaking towards a much larger one.
Even sleeping is was about 3 metres tall and many metres long, it was still a juvenile but obviously older than the others and a lot stronger. Although it looked peaceful, he could tell it was not in deep sleep.
He tried to warn him without shouting but the idiot was too consumed by his own greed. He looked at Cathra and she too had a terrified look.
She tried casting the sleeping spell on it but it was too late, Victor was already touching it. It opened it huge red eyes and batted Victor with it head and sent him flying.
It looked at them and opened it mouth, he tried to rush to it to close it mouth with a barrier and muffle it roar but it was too late. A deep roar echoed in the cave.
The others woke up, realising their stones were gone they screamed and roared in anger. DAMNIT WE NEED TO LEAVE RIGHT NOW, shouted Cathra.
They ran out of the cave expecting the salamanders to chase them but they did not. Just as they were about to sigh with relief a much deeper, much louder roar echoed, the air and the ground shook with it roar.
Multiple roars followed it, they felt the ground shake, slowly they turned their heads and at the peak of the volcano stood a large Salamander.
Much larger than any he had seen, infact it was the second largest creature he had seen second to the whales he saw Uriel fight. It stood at over 50 metres tall, he could not see it tail so he did not know how long it was but it did not matter.
They could all feel the power radiating off of it, he did not even need to use heavenly eyes to know how powerful this thing it. The air burnt and ignited around it.
It took a step and the entire volcanic mountain shook. RUN, Cathra shouted but she did not need to, they all turned around and ran.
It did not chase after them, it merely opened it mouth, a dark orange ball of fire gathered at the back of it mouth. He felt cold as if the death ripper was smiling at them, he knew if they did not dodge this they would die.
There was no time to warn the others so he casted barriers around their feet, their speed combined with the surprise, they were bound to fall.
They fell face flat, as Victor was about complain another barrier appeared above pressing all of them flat to ground, all of this happened in two seconds then it came.