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Hence, Blaze did not have the advantage which Raven had in the fight. Fooling him wouldn’t be an easy task.

Just like before, they did not need a signal to start the fight as both of them began to chat their respective Spells.

The strengthening Spells were not really necessary, but they were so common among Mages that they did not even count them as real Spells since most of the Mages did not need to chant to cast those Spells.

And for the sake of fairness, the judge again gave the first strike to his opponent, letting Blaze do whatever he wanted.

The spectating people all had their attention on Blaze, expecting an even better performance than Raven from him.

Unlike Raven, who had rushed straight towards her opponent, Blaze instead opted to maintain his distance and steady his stance. Everyone was wondering what he would do next, and his next move shocked the onlookers except for Raven and Ozul.

.....

Small crystals of Ice started to form out of thin air without him even chanting a Spell. To the spectators’ surprise, it did not stop until two huge chunks around the size of an elephant were floating in the air!

Though Blaze required all of his focus to keep the Ice steady, the size of this Spell could already be compared to a Magical Spell from a Rank-6 Mage!

And unlike what the onlookers had thought, there was not any action involved in this battle as the middle-aged man’s voice rang out in the training ground;

“You passed...”- The judge did not need to trade blows with Blaze to know if he was qualified to be a Gold Rank Mercenary or not.

Seeing the results of the promotion test, the couple of people who had come to spectate left the training ground. They were here just out of curiosity, but they had seen what they could probably never forget.

They hurriedly left the training ground so they could gossip about it with their friends.

Emory also noted everything that Blaze did in the few seconds of their ‘fight’. On his left side, Lucy had stars in her eyes as she held her cheeks with her hands.

She looked with hazy eyes as Blaze went towards Ozul, who was sitting on a chair and somehow had a cat on his lap.

“Tsk, that guy did not even exchange any blows with me.”- Blaze said as Raven sneered in response.

Raven’s battle seemed desperate, but her specialty lay in dragging the fight and not in finishing it with one attack.

The longer the fight continued, the more advantage she would have due to the dagger’s Mana and Stamina steal.

Whereas Blaze would have been exhausted right after the Spell that he had used, which would have been a foolish move in an actual battle. Even now, in a fight between Blaze and Raven, the latter would win 9 out of 10 times.

At this moment, Emory and Lucy approached the trio before the latter took out two gold insignia that represented Gold Rank Mercenaries.

“Congratulations. Both of you are now Gold Rank Mercenaries!”- Emory congratulated them before they went back to the Guild building.

“So, what is it that you want from us now?”- Blaze asked the question after they were sitting in the office of Emory.

The trio knew that the Mercenary Guild was up to some schemes. However, under the influence of Ozul, Blaze had also started learning to be straight forward.

It made Ozul nod his head in approval since he was going to ask the same question had Blaze not taken the initiative.

‘Nice, Saves me the trouble.’- Ozul thought while moving his prosthetic hands through the silky black hair of Jinx.

Raven kept darting her eyes towards Ozul, imagining herself in place of Jinx, being patted by him as she would scratch him with her paws...

She shook her head to throw these stupid thoughts away.

‘I really need to control my thoughts sometimes.’

Back to the Blaze, after he had asked the question, Emory’s expression turned solemn before he gestured towards Lucy to leave the room. Lucy complied, albeit reluctantly, and gave a sidelong glance at Blaze before moving out.

“Since your team is now Gold Rank, there is a mission for you guys.”- Emory said with a smirk on his face.

“And what does the Emperor want from us?”- Unlike what he had expected, Ozul spoke instead of Blaze. The question too shocked him out of his wits!

Though Emory was only the Vice Guild Master, he was aware of many details that others were not.

He knew that it was probably Emperor Luthien himself that had ordered this task since it was issued by the Chief Leader of Silver Knights, Sir Rufus.

He was also aware that the talks of this trio helping Duke Edwin in defeating the Monster was false since the Mercenary Guild themselves had spread this rumor on the request of Sir Rufus.

‘How do they know?! More importantly, why does he seem so calm about it!?...’- Emory could not understand the situation. He was supposed to be intimidating the trio, but instead, it was he who was being overwhelmed.

*Ahem!*

It took a few seconds for Emory to compose himself as he straightened his back and put his hands on the table. He would have looked quite intimidating if it was someone else before him.

Unfortunately, Ozul wouldn’t bat an eye even if some Gods stood before him while Raven and Blaze had experienced far more intimidating things than him. The Monster, a few days ago, would be the perfect example.

“As you have... guessed, the mission was assigned by ‘his Majesty’ personally.”- Emory said, trying to put pressure on the trio by emphasizing the Majesty.

Clearly, another failed attempt since all he received in return was the cold stares.

“So, what is this ‘Royal task’ supposed to be?”- Blaze asked while rolling his eyes.

“The mission details would be discussed tomorrow with other Mercenaries who would also be participating. I would suggest you accept this task since you guys were specifically mentioned.”- Emory explained after sighing for the umpteenth time.

“And you should know that defying the orders from the Royal Palace has consequences...”- For some reason or another, Emory still hoped that his words would scare the ‘kids’ before him.

“Who else would be joining?”- Ozul asked, finally giving Emory some of his attention.

“A couple of other Gold Rank Mercenaries and there would be a Platinum Rank group as well.”

Emory’s words piqued Ozul’s interest. While he understood that there would be a couple of Gold Rank Mercenaries, a Platinum Rank would mean that the mission had considerable danger.

Of course, when he said considerable danger, he meant it for others and not for himself.

“No other information except for this?”- Blaze asked with an annoyed expression. He did not like it when someone would try to just dump things on him.

“The most I can tell you is that it would be an escort mission.”- Emory sighed and gave out a small piece of information.

‘An escort mission? Who could be so important that they require a Platinum Mercenary group to protect? Is it some prince or princess? No... if that was the case, the Emperor could have just sent his own men.’

Ozul began to analyze the situation since this task did not seem so simple to him.

The Emperor Luthien, of course, had many men under his command, and he could order them anytime he wanted, but he still chose to hire Mercenaries!

And the person that they would be escorting also seems to be an important person, looking at the number of Mercenaries that were hired to complete a single task.

Most importantly, Ozul wanted to understand what schemes were at play! There must be some reason for Rufus to mention them specifically.

After obtaining all the details from Emory, the trio walked out of the Guild’s building, under the intense gaze of Lucy.

Walking out, Raven, who had kept an eye on Jinx the whole time, was stunned to find out that she had missed her again!

While Raven was thinking of ways to keep Jinx under her tabs, Blaze had different questions;

“Are we going to accept the task?”-

“Of course, we are.”- Ozul looked curiously at Blaze as if asking him why that was even a question.

“But isn’t he using us? Are you going to allow him?”- Blaze explained his doubt when he noticed Ozul looking at him weirdly.

“Oh, you’re worried about that? Naive mindset.”- Ozul said while shaking his head. When he noticed that Blaze did not understand, he explained;

“Does it matter if he is using us when in the end, he dies and I live?”- This was the most straightforward way that Ozul could explain the situation to him.

Little small fights did not mean a thing if they did not win in the end. A person should always learn to find opportunities in their predicaments.

They walked back to the hotel, as all of them had different thoughts running through their minds.