As I managed to pass the Venus Kelence test, I finally got an opportunity to earn a large amount of money and resources, the knowledge that maybe I can gain from the ruins and a bonus from this expedition.
My compensation was negotiated based on my possible performance, if I can help them find the ruin, I automatically earn five thousand gold coins. And in case I am able to help inside the ruin both guiding and disarming the rune arrays I will get an extra reward for each array I disarm or show me the method of breaking the rune arrays.
After I signed the magical contract with Venus, I and she are now bound by the terms of the contract. My part of the contract is basically: don't lie about the rune matrices we find, don't even hide an item recovered from the old ruin, don't argue with other people about the ruin either before or after the expedition and finally I can't attack or a member of the expedition.
If I violate any of these clauses I will be killed by the magic contract, even Venus would also die if she breaks the contract, as we use a level four contract that can affect even people with the red core.
As well as various clauses in the contract that prevent me from harming the Kelence family, as well as clauses that prevent the Kelence family from harming me, they cannot disclose my participation in the expedition without my permission, they cannot harm me or let me be harmed. by an unknown source during the expedition.
That last clause and one of the reasons I agreed to take the risk, the expedition members are forced to keep me safe so the chance for me to die is greatly reduced and that makes me very happy.
With the contract done, the expedition was scheduled for the following day I ended up spending the night at the Kelence family mansion and only after they read the letter, I wrote to Hilda asking her to take care of Wulfgar and tell some teachers that I would be absent from the school. In class for a few days, they only allowed me to send the letter because there was nothing in it that could harm the expedition, I also asked Raziel to tell Captain Raven that I will be absent for the next few days.
I just hope the captain doesn't get too angry with me, and that she hasn't already organized some fight for me at the club. That was a short night, when the sun had not yet lit the sky, I was already out of town.
The Kelence family group wasted no time and left as quickly as possible, the trip to the kingdom's border was quick and smooth for me. I didn't even have an obligation to do other than sit around without getting into trouble, during those three days I spent my time practicing my ability to create my aura armor.
I haven't made much progress, just three days of intensive training won't make much difference creating an aura armor is really complicated and basically impossible for me, even if I had perfect control of my aura.
At my core level I would run out of aura before completing full aura armor.
During these three days I also ended up meeting some members of the expedition, in this expedition the highest level and the orange core that was in the advanced stage, it was just short for Venus to reach the maximum stage of the orange core she and a mage of the shadow element.
Accompanied her as her personal guard to three orange core warriors, one was a defensive warrior who had the shadow and earth elements and the other two were offensive with dual elements as well, both had the shadow element, but their second element was different one theirs was fire while the other was water their main function was to protect Venus.
They were truly elite warriors raised by the Kelence family, I don't know their name as my place on the train is different from theirs, but I suspect their last name must be Kelence.
The rest of the caravan was composed of eight green core mages this squad of mages has several elements that should be useful to face any situation that may appear in the ruin and thirty green core warriors to complete the expedition.
Obviously, I'm the weakest and only person below the green core, to exploit a ruin the tactic of playing countless low-level fighters and mages is useless because they wouldn't even be able to drain mana from the magic matrices.
Because of this, a small group like this is more effective in exploring the dungeon, in reality the smaller the group the greater the chance of preventing the ruin from fully activating and defending itself with all its might.
Most green core people are here to sacrifice themselves if need be or to keep the golems in the ruin occupied. And because of that I didn't try to get to know the other members of the expedition very much if the ruin is complicated more than half of them should end up dying, so I particularly prefer not to spend my time meeting someone who has a good chance of dying in the ruin.
With the arrival of the caravan near the border the caravan leaves the road and starts heading towards the forest where the ruin should be located. What caught my attention was the earth element mage who had been erasing the chariot tracks for over two days he is really skilled and in incredible control to use his magic for such a long period of time without making a mistake, even working for hours on no break.
I think he is using a drug because his canteen is not full of water, I can see a mixture with the elemental energy of the life and earth element I believe it must be a custom-made drug for him to drink during the trip to keep his Focus, in the end his task is very important to prevent the group from being followed in the tracks of the carriages.
After leaving the road the caravan's speed slowed down and it became more irritating to stay in the carriage, but luckily for us it didn't take long to reach a dark forest that was our final destination.
The carriages were left in the care of five warriors and the rest of them took everything we could need as they entered the forest and then into the ruin.
"Ready to get to work, Ulric?"
My daydreams ended when Venus appeared beside me with her guards, she was no longer wearing a dress but a tunic mixed with leather armor, her clothing was entirely black and full of elemental energy of the shadow element, which scared me of truth was her staff before she only carried a wand with her but now equipped with a staff, i feel that even being in the sunlight it's still a bit dark and as if the sun got cloudy around Venus now that she's using her equipment.
"Hi Lady Venus I'm ready to do my duties."
"No need for you to call me ma'am, Ulric it makes me feel like an old woman and only call me by my bad name or Aunt Venus. In the end you are one of the few real friends my son has."
"Okay, Aunt Venus, let's start exploring the forest now?"
"Yes, the direction we think the ruin is between the central part of the forest and the west of the forest."
I started to lead the team and on my side one of the elite guards who had the wind element was protecting me if I was attacked, I would feel pretty safe next to an orange core warrior, but I feel hostility coming from him. He doesn't like me one bit.
Upon entering the forest, I looked for something different in it, and to my disappointment this is an ordinary forest. I didn't find anything different about it, nothing was draining the mana from the air or the elemental energy from the ground and I was hoping I could track the ruin by the mana or elemental energy it must be sucking from my environment, but I don't think it will be that easy.
For the next day I followed the direction Aunt Venus had told me the ruin might be, but I was left without a single result until the second night. When the moon was full in the sky, I felt that the aria's mana was moving in a different way, I was very lucky to notice this because I was going to sleep when I noticed this difference.
If I had spent less time at dinner, I wouldn't have noticed this abnormality. After studying for a while and concentrating on the mana swirling in the air, both around me and the mana above the trees.
I climbed one of the trees and started to see the forest from a high vantage point now, my different views caught everyone's attention, but not one of them did anything to stop me.
When I was at the top of the tree, I was able to identify the direction the mana was going, and with that I believe I may have found the ruin in the forest, well I mean, I believe I managed to find her direction now more or less.
During the day I followed the direction I had set during the night and only after two days of doing this I could see the mana flow in the air during the day, and with that I was able to find the ruin.
When dusk came, we finally saw the rest of a building buried in the forest that frequent moss-covered wall was the signal to all those who had begun to doubt my abilities in the last few days that we were near the ruin.
But when the sun disappeared both Aunt Venus and the rest are excited to continue looking for the ruin because they believed we were only a few meters from it, but I warned that the mana that was being absorbed by the ruin that brought me here was stronger the night and we shouldn't try to enter the ruin now.
I almost couldn't convince them, but luckily Aunt Venus decided to wait for the night to pass so that we didn't arrive at the ruin until dawn.
After the last night sleeping in the forest, we arrived at the ruin, without losing a single man and killing only a few dozen animals and magical beasts of level three and below.
"Congratulations, Ulric. You just won five thousand gold coins."