Wales city, Star Restaurant.
Iki was standing on the counter and taking orders from the customers when her co-worker, Niata, came and stood next to her.
"Well, who was that guy you were talking with? He looks cute!" Niata almost shouted in her ear.
Iki stared at Niata, which in return, earned her a wink.
"Nothing, he is just my brother." Iki was already feeling tired from the day and wanted to finish up already.
"Wait really?!" Niata received the news with too much enthusiasm for Iki's liking.
"That means I can hit on him." Niata was tall with jet black hair and pretty blue eyes framed with thick lashes. She had a sultry look that caused men to swarm around her. Iki understood the cause of her enthusiasm in one go.
She greeted Niata's idea with a frying pan that was dealt on her head with expertise. With force enough to not injure her, but to get the point across completely.
"Ou- Why!?" Niata's initial complaints and anger were subdued by Iki's glare.
"Don't you dare disturb him! He-"
"Okay okay, I get it." Niata raised her hands as a sign of defeat and went back to work.
Iki was glad she went back without bothering her too much and resumed taking orders.
A chilly wind brushed against her as another customer entered.
Winter was approaching.
........
When Kal returned, he was glad to see the Golems in one piece.
He looked at Rio, who was sitting on the floor due to the lack of a chair. Kal invited him to sit in his room, which Rio gladly accepted.
Once inside the room, Kal gave Rio the file containing the list of missions found near the Kellar region.
"We have an S class quest this time." Kal said to Rio, who was going through the file to find the contents of the S class mission.
In Galen, missions were issued by the Adventurer Association. They divided missions into different classes based on their level of difficulty, with the F class being the lowest, and the SSS class being the highest.
An S class quest was easier than an SS or an SSS class, but it didn't make it any less dangerous.
"Generally, we send at least four S class Warriors or Mages on this kind of mission. But, I want to send you alone, for this is considered an easy quest among the S class and also so that you don't have to hold back."
Ever since Rio arrived in Galen, he sure had the affinity of all elements and all the thousands of laws out there, but the knowledge didn't come from nothing. He needed to learn from others to get any use for his powers.
He had decided to take on missions so he could learn from them and get accustomed to his body. Unexpectedly, he could understand how a spell worked simply by watching it a few times. Every time someone casts a spell, he could see how the energy flowed and how it mixes with the elemental energy in the surroundings to conjure a spell.
Rio would just copy them and improve them further to better adjust the flow of the elemental energies.
Still, to create something of his own, something original, he needed a stable foundation and understanding of magic and laws. Which was the reason why he would often borrow books from Kal.
"An S class quest might have a lot to teach." Rio was thrilled to get his hands on even more knowledge and money.
Two birds with one stone.
"When do I have to leave?"
"In three days, I will talk with the client in your stead. Also, as this is your first S class quest and a lot of important people might want to investigate about the person doing an S class quest solo, I suggest you do something about your face." Kal was genuinely worried, not because Rio was ugly. But because everyone had seen him on the day of the Summoning Ritual.
Rio took a mental note to think about it. People in the Adventurer Association didn't care about identities as long as the quest was completed.
"In three days, when you are ready, come to my Mansion. I will take you from here." Kal said.
Rio nodded while opening a Dimensional Gate outside the market ward, to not shock the common people.
He walked from there to a shop on the corner of the street.
It was a small shop with peeling paint and a fading sign. It was made to look like that so it could blend in with some other shops on the street, and be as inconspicuous as possible.
Rio went inside, making the bell jingle. Placed on the door, it was made to ring every time a customer entered.
A white cat greeted him. Its fur was as white as snow, with no trace of dirt on its body and its movements, lithe and nimble.
The cat's eyes were glowing with intelligence and curiosity.
"Hey, Tez! Missed me?" Rio said, lifting Tez and patting her head.
Tez snuggled in Rio's arms in response.
Rio looked around the shop. It appeared to be a herbalist's shop, but it wasn't all that it appeared to be.
He went and sat on the chair, which was placed before the desk filled with bottles of potions and containers of herbs.
Rio would occasionally recognize a few of them. Such as the Silver Grass or the Shard Dew. Most of the others he had not seen before or learned of them yet.
He was bored of waiting, but the shop belonged to someone who he respected, and he would wait for her as long as he was not in a hurry.
Tez left his lap and went behind the curtains to call her master for the waiting guest.
The woman who came from behind the curtains looked not older past her twenties but Rio knew better than to trust the face for the age.
She was a short woman who couldn't have been more than 5'3, had dark blue hair which was quite rare in the north, and fair skin with large brown eyes.
"What does Mister Rio need from me this time?" Angela, the owner of the shop asked.
"Greetings Angela, you are as beautiful as ever." Rio said while kissing her hand. Angela went beet red from Rio's compliment.
Kal had given him lessons on how to impress girls, most of which he mixed with the etiquette lessons to appear civil.
"I need your help in getting information about something." Rio said.
Angela turned around quickly and opened a door for them to enter and talk in private.
Most of the people who came to her shop would think that she preserved her skin with herbs and was actually very old, so they never tried to get close to her. Little did she know that Rio was no exception to those guesses.
Nonetheless, she was touched by Rio's gesture of intimacy, mistaking his respect for a fellow mage as a sign of friendship.
She sat on one of the three armchairs surrounding a table in the middle of the room.
Tez pounced on the other one.
And Rio settled on the last chair left.
.
.
.