Chương 347: Contentment

"Mage Wells, we really can't thank you enough for the rescue," said Zemfira Morina, the A Rank Earth mage in charge of the team of adventurers that Damion rescued.

"I'm just glad I was passing by," Damion responded.

"How did you all get trapped by so many A Rank Demonic Beasts anyway?"

"We were exploring the area since there had been reports of a manticore near the border of the Zone. Our mission was to find it and kill it. With our group of two A Ranks and three B Rank mages it would have been an easy mission. Except it turned out there was not just one manticore."

"So faulty intelligence," Damion surmised.

"Yes. When we located the manticore we had been tracking to a cave further into the Red Zone we had no idea there were other manticores in there. We attacked, but were quickly forced to retreat, with the whole pack pursuing us all the way across the Red Zone."

"Well, at least you can go back and report success," Damion told her.

"That is at least good," Mage Morina said before turning to the Crimson Order outpost commander.

"Commander Navee, would it be possible to keep one of the cores of the beasts as proof of our mission success. By rights, all of the carcasses are your outpost's, since you all did the actual killing, but our mission did require us to bring back the core as proof."

"Just one core of the five, that is no problem," Commander Navee replied.

"Do you think Mage Wells could also receive one of the cores? He rescued us and was instrumental in luring the manticores to the outpost to be killed." Damion appreciated Mage Morina taking up his cause, and being rewarded with an A Rank core meant a juicy 5, 000 credits for the Magic System Shop, but he was not sure if the commander would agree. The commander eyed Damion for a moment and pondered the matter before he finally answered.

"Mage Wells did indeed contribute much, and without his assistance, who knows how long those Demonic Beasts would have terrified the region. I have no qualms with him being awarded a core."

"Thank you, commander," Damion said.

"Does the outpost have a processing facility?"

"Such luxuries are for cities. Here we have a workforce to do the processing," Commander Navee answered.

"In that case, I guess it is time to get working." It took several hours for the Crimson Order members to process the five manticore bodies. While Damion waited, he reviewed the notifications he received from the Magic System. Ding [Spell No Resistance mastery increased to C Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit.] Ding [Spell Poison Resistance mastery increased to E Rank] Love this story?

Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit.] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Kill B Rank Ferocious Beasts or Demonic Beasts – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 10 Store Credits] Damion was surprised to see his Poison Resistance passive increase.

The only explanation he could think of was that he must have gotten close enough to one of the manticores' stingers or perhaps one of their attacks had been closer than he thought. Whichever was the case, he was happy to see the extra 500 credits. With the three quests he did complete and the A Rank core, he gained 300 experience and just over 6, 000 credits. He was inching his way closer to the level 4 upgrade for the Magic System as well as the credits needed for the Anti-Regression potion.

A few more A Rank kills and he would unlock the S Rank kill quest, not that Damion believed he would be able to kill S Ranks anytime soon. Even the A Rank kills he had were because of teams he had been in. The Magic System awarding him credit for the five manticores was a bit surprising, but Damion guessed it was because he had engaged them in combat and even through the Crimson Order's magic cannons killed them, he was still close, so was rewarded.

"I'll be off then," Damion told the others as he took to the sky on his Ice Sword.

"Safe travels, Mage Wells," Mage Morina called out to him as he flew away. After a few more hours of exploring, Damion used Portal to take him and Phil home. He cleaned himself up quickly and then cast Portal to take him to his parents' apartment for dinner with the family. Each day, when Damion returned home and visited his parents and spent the night with Elicia, he found himself feeling more and more content.

It was not that he did not want to go out and explore or battle Ferocious and Demonic Beasts, but he was coming to feel he had turned adventuring into a normal nine to five job. With his Spatial affinity he was able to return home each night, no matter how far he traveled and the idea of going a day without seeing his family was becoming alien to him.

"So how was your day son?" Caleb Wells asked Damion over dinner.

"Not bad. I rescued a group of adventurers from five A Rank Demonic Beasts. We lured the beasts over to a Crimson Order outpost and we managed to kill them all."

"That sounds very impressive. But shouldn't you leave such dangerous work to stronger mages? I mean, you are still only B Rank. Why would you go and fight A Rank beasts?"

"I wasn't looking for them. When I saw those people in need, I also could not just ignore them. I could help, so I did. Don't worry, with my skills escaping is a piece of cake."

"Our son is an adventurer," Sharon said, placing a gentle hand on her husband's.

"He was trained by Helga and even went to a magic academy. I'm sure he knows his limits." Damion was touched by his mother's confidence. Of course, he never told them about the numerous close calls he had over the years. Or the number of times people had tried to murder him. He wanted his parents to believe he was perfectly safe out there. Of course, Elicia knew better. She knew of the attempts on his life and how dangerous it really was, going into dungeons and exploring the wilds.

Their son might make it sound ordinary, but it was far from that. Since she did not want to worry her in-laws, Elicia kept everything bottled up. Not letting anyone know how much danger Damion was in every time he left the safety of a city.

"Ready to go?" Damion asked Elicia after they were finished with dinner.

"Yes." Damion cast Portal and took them both back to his underground home. Phil let out a chirp of greetings from his nest in the cave outside, when they arrived. The pair got ready for bed and while they were laying there, Elicia made Damion recount his day again, in accurate detail. Recounting everything for Elicia was second nature to him by now. So, he was able to tell her everything while reviewing his day's mapping expedition on his tablet.

While Elicia was annoyed he did not give her his undivided attention, she also understood what he was trying to create and let him be a little obsessive.

"Well, this is different," Damion said when he spotted something on his tablet while looking at the map.

"What is it?" Elicia asked.

"See this spot," Damion asked as he switched his tablet to projection mode and pointed to a strange dot.

"Looks like a Realm Breach. Don't they show up as dots like that?"

"They show up as dots, but not like that. See, this is a normal Breach signature," Damion said pulling up an old version of a map where he had encountered a Breach that had since been cleared.

"And this is the cluster I found before." Damion pulled up another map, showing the eight A Rank Breaches he had located before switching back to the new map.

"But this, is different."