Tetra laughed at Mettagon's question, "I lost a bet with the Demon God, and in response, he inflicted me with a curse that killed off all of the life force in my muscles. Luckily for me, Dragon muscles are tougher than the curse, and I've been slowly removing them over time. Right now, I'm about twenty-five percent of my original power, and it's also why I chose to summon you."
"You...met...with 'the' Demon God?!" Mettagon shouted, sounding more than surprised!
"Yes, he's the oldest being on this land, I went to ask him if he knew a way to rank up a Non-Elemental Sigil," Tetra answered.
"So he gave you the information to bate you into a bet?" Mettagon scratched his head.
"No, the bet was over the information, I lost the bet and he cursed me while taking my most precious treasure," Tetra corrected.
"So how did you become a Tyro? Wait just one second...He took you're Beast God Armor? You fool, why would you bet a God Artifact? Now the Demon God has 2 pieces, even the Dragons only have 3 such treasures!"
Tetra laughed loudly before declaring, "It matters not! My new disciple is worth more than any godly treasure. Even losing the Beast God Armor was worth sacrificing just to meet him."
"Have you lost your mind!?" Mettagon responded with a flabbergasted expression.
"Just the opposite! He just turned 18 and managed to figure out how to evolve a Non-Elemental Sigil. Not to mention, with what Fei Lei's done with his Human Transfiguration Sigil, his physique might even surpass that of a dragon while remaining completely human!" Tetra bragged.
Mettagon rolled his eyes, "Hmm, now I know you've lost your mind, a human that can surpass a dragon's physique!? Preposterous!"
Tetra laughed and said, "Haha~hah! You'll see it for yourself when you meet him. He's an interesting kid."
"I don't care! By the way, can I take the loot from the places we're hitting?" Mettagon asked with money-signs in his eyes.
Tetra laughed, "You Metal Dragons are obsessed with gold and silver! You know that's the sole reason they switched to paper currency 200 years ago?"
"It's not so much the gold, but all metals are important to Metal Dragon's evolution, we have to eat the metals to improve our physiques, I managed to reach the peak of the steel-scale stage, and now can attempt to reach the silver-scale stage."
"Oh, so the King of Steel will become the King of Gold?" Tetra pulled out a large chunk of silver ore about the same size as his head.
As the Mettagon sniffed it, the dragon drooled a thick line of slobber into the sky, one could see the desire in its eyes as Tetra brought the ore close to his mouth.
When Tetra bit down on the hunk of silver, he found out that his Dragon Physique could easily chow down on the ore.
Tetra's teeth bit into the golden chuck like rock-candy and felt the ore turn into a liquid once it hit his stomach acid.
Mettagon cried out, "That's not fair! Save some for me!"
Tetra ignored the dragon's pleas and ate the whole thing.
Smiling as he felt the ore in his stomach dissolve into his bloodstream, Tetra began to feel the effects of his curse growing lighter.
Tetra quickly processed his odd meal while the curse on his body lessened by 20 percent. He then laughed as he pulled out another silver piece of ore and chowed down.
Tetra continued to do this before until his entire body abruptly shined and was covered by a dark-silverish mist of energy.
Once the mist retreated from the surface of his body, Tetra's smile had widened to the point of reaching his ears.
Mettagon felt a great sense of loss as he watched Tetra continue to devour a small hillside of silver and gold.
Suddenly, Tetra's entire body glowed with a golden hue as he let out a dragon's roar that shook the skies.
Mettagon shook at the sheer force of Tetra's power, he had achieved the Golden Metal Dragon Physique before him.
"How? You didn't even eat a lot!" Mettagon questioned with a jealous glare.
Tetra laughed again, "It's because my actual body is much smaller, my Transformation Magic copied your body down to the smallest detail but morphed into the shape of my original human body. It was quite a breakthrough for me."
Mettagon grunted, "Give me the rest of your Silver, Gold, and any Mythril we get from the Dark Guild Bases!"
Tetra laughed before saying, "I'll let you have what we get from our little raids, but what I have with me, is a gift for my student! Oh, and is Mythril the next step in the physique tempering stage?"
Mettagon suddenly had a bad feeling that came to fruition as Tetra pulled out a large chunk of Mythril ore, tears started to form at the corner of the Dragon's eyes as he thought, "Why are the heavens so unfair?"
From a great and unfathomable distance, a shadowy figure was staring at the two flying through the sky, through a large black cauldron covered in a black and purple mist.
The shadowy figure then moved away from the darkness revealing his image.
He was a large being with long black hair and eyes that looked like the endless black abyss of the void. He wore a pure black and red priestly looking robe.
The large 25-foot man with devilishly good looks ceased his spying on Tetra with a grin and said, "It appears our bet isn't over yet, old friend."
He waved his hand and snapped his finger, "Ucifer bring my disciple to me."
A shadow appeared alongside a young and beautiful woman, she had a small horn protruding from the center of her forehead and had long blue hair.
Two bat-like wings were tucked in at her back, and a single heart-shaped devil's tail was wrapped around her waist.
She wore black half-plate leather armor and had two long-legged greaves that tucked in her loose black pants. On her waist was a large sword wrapped in chains that emanated a constant flow of blackish aura.
"I've taught you for a long time, in my entire teachings did you ever feel I mistreated you?" The mysterious man's voice echoed into the girl's ears.
The girl stood forward and bowed, "No! All Master has done is help me become strong and master my instincts."
"It is time for you to leave, the person of Destiny has arrived, and the sleeping gods will waken once more. Should you meet someday, you must bring him over to our side. If the war returns then we will have to rely on him to survive," The elder cloaked in black smoke said as he let out a sigh.
"Master is the situation really that out of hand!?" Ucifer shouted.
"Even know a Sky Devil roams free, my power isn't enough to track him unless he exposes himself. That boy, however, managed to kill a copy somehow," The supposed Demonic Master responded.
"Lord Void, do I really have to leave!?" The girl asked.
Void stared over his pupil and smiled before he said, "You have grown beautiful over the years child who shares my blood. You should go out and find a suitable husband."
The girl blushed, "WHAT?"
Void's smile widened, he then waved his hand transporting her away.
As the blue-haired woman faded away, she heard Void call out to her, "Remember, my child, neither, Darkness nor Demons are evil. They are whatever they make of themselves out to be, so only you can choose whether your evil or not."
Void then turned back to Ucifer and said, "Send those three that received my blessing to watch over her and aid her in her search."
The demonic gentleman bowed and said, "It will be as you wish, Master Void!"
Shade turned back to the cauldron and sighed, "It has been so long my love, when will you wake up?"
Waving his hand the image in the object shifted showing Fei Lei's group cutting down a group of Bandits.
The had easily dispatched a group of 30 Adept level mages without getting a single wound.
After cutting their heads off and storing them they returned to the village that had sent out the request. Together, they met with the village elder and handed over their lost belongings along with the heads of the men that raided them.
The Village Elder fell to his knees thanking them profusely, they waited till he calmed down before pulling out their guild cards.
In response, the old man pulled out a stamp and tapped on the Guild Card's surface, making the card give off a soft chiming noise.
Fei Lei looked to the card to see 500 Guild Points had been distributed to their card.
"Why isn't it money? Fei Lei asked in a disappointed tone.
"You can exchange your GP for real cash or prizes that the guild owns," Hina said smiling while she held out a card that had 214,650 GP on it.
Fei Lei nodded his head, "What's the exchange rate, and what are you saving up for?"
"A Prime Ocean Magus's Grimoire. It cost 2 Million GP to purchase." Hina replied. "All of her spells and experiences are written in that relic. You can browse what's available on the back of the card."
Flipping the card around Fei Lei saw a small list that one could press down on.
As he did, a screen popped up in front of Fei Lei's face that displayed the GP to Money exchange ratio and a list of items one could purchase.
The exchange rate was, 1 Gold Bill for 10 Guild Points, 10 Silver Bills for 1 Guild Point, and 1000 Coper Bills for 1 Guild Point.
Fei Lei smiled and thought, "With this one job we did, the group could earn around enough to live in luxury for a week."
"No wonder so many choose to become adventurers. Dangerous but lucrative," Fei Lei mumbled to himself as he grabbed the girls and headed back towards the mountains while leaving a cheering village in distance.
After a while, they ended back at the entrance of Fei Lei's hidden city and were met by a surprise.
Fei Lei could see people wandering around the river, it appeared that two people leading a poor-looking group while looking around with a confused look on their face.
Fei Lei and the rest landed nearby and crept closer to them silently.
As soon as Hina spotted their faces, she smiled and shouted, "1st Big brother Storm, 2nd big sister Rain!"
The two looked over and smiled before Storm said, "Little sister Hina, it's good to see you again."
Rain ran over and hugged her tightly, "I missed you little one. How have you been?"
Hina tried to pull Rain off of her while she felt Storm pat her head.
"I'm not a little kid anymore!" Hina shouted as she struggled free and swatted their hands away.
"Look, Storm, our little princess is going through her rebellious phase," Rain sniffled out while acted like she was sad.
Fei Lei almost laughed when Hina gave him a 'Don't you dare!' stare and walked up next to her.
Fei Lei then bowed before greeting them, "Youngest disciple greets 1st and 2nd disciples."
Fei Lei looked back to see them smiling.
"Master Tetra said you were well behaved," Storm said as he nodded his head in approval.
Rain smiled as she looked to Hina and whispered, "So this is the one that captured your heart?"
Hina blushed and looked off to the distance and whistled.
Storm then dropped his fist on top of Rain and said, "Don't bully your juniors."
Rain gave a fake cry of pain before complaining, "Ouch! Meanie, who exactly is bulling their junior here?"
Fei Lei laughed a little, and looked around and said, "So what's with all the people."
Scanning through the crowd of a few hundred people, Fei Lei saw their destitute appearances and sighed.
Few were adults, many of them were teenagers, and the rest were children. However, all of them were covered in wounds and scars both mental and physical.
Fei Lei stared back at Storm and Rain before he listened to them explain that these people were captives and slaves of the Dark Guild.
"Master said to stop by, and since we were headed to a city to give shelter to these people we figured we stop by," Rain said looking over Fei Lei's physique.
"Wait, you thought it would be a good idea, to bring a bunch of people to the incomplete city, that I want to hide?" Fei Lei questioned his older siblings as if they were children.
"Um...well, we kind of thought, you could provide them with shelter," Rain responded with a meek tone.
Storm tilted his head and ran his hand through his hair with an embarrassed expression, "Sorry! When we heard that you were building a secrete base, the kid in me sort of prioritized coming here."
Rain then held out her arm as she said, "Plus, now you have citizens!"
Fei Lei lifted a brow and said, "Well then, why are you waiting around out here?"
"Well Master said you were building a city in this area, but we don't see one," Storm replied with a straight face.
Throughout their entire conversation, all Yan Mei did, was look over at them with a shocked and jaw-dropping expression.
Seeing her expression, Fei Lei finally turned to her and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Are you Lee Strom from the Lee Clan? And you aren't you the Eastern Emperor's General, Rain Chi?" Yan Mei asked with her eyes swirling.
"Oh, well if it isn't the young mistress of the Yan Clan. That old Hou Shi hasn't stopped bragging about your Fire God Roots!" Storm shouted in a jolly manner.
Yan Mei bowed, "It is an honor to meet Grandfather's old friend!"
Storm's face lit up into a bright smile and started to laugh before he said, "Your Grandfather has been drinking friends with me for many years now, no need to show such politeness."
Fei Lei suddenly figured out that the two standing before him were most likely Prime Magis. He gulped and thought about how strong the rest of his fellow disciples were.
Fei Lei then shook his head and smiled, "How? You look so young?"
"Thinking we're Prime Mages?" Rain called out with a cute smile.
"Um...sorry, it's just, the Elder of the Hou Clan is a Prime Magus, so I figured you'd be too." Fei Lei responded.
"You aren't wrong to suspect, after all, we are much older than we look," Storm said with a grin.
"We're close enough in power too! You were close, Fei Lei," Rain said while revealing a Liquid Sigil that reached the 7th Level.
"Grand Warlocks! My eldest siblings are amazing!" Fei Lei thought with a look of shock on his face.
He then looked over at those that had suffered through the Dark Guild's torture and asked loudly, "Do any of you have a place to return?"
The crowd lowered their heads, it appeared the Dark Guild not only took them as slaves but also burned their villages to the ground.
Fei Lei shook his head and said, "I can allow you to stay in my city without taxes, but only for a while. Shelter and water will be provided, but you will be expected to help in any future construction that the city may require. As for food, there are already a few farming spots ready for planting, and the livestock I've gathered are simple beasts, you'll have to ration the meat and help with the breeding."
Fei Lei then puffed his chest out and shouted, "If you work, you will be rewarded. This is the motto of my city, remember it well if you plan on living here."