After a brief conversation with Katheryne about what kind of commissions I could take, I learned that as the 'Honorary Knight' of Mondstadt I was put up as a VIP in terms of commissions I was eligible for and in other words for priority quests they would give bonuses for me to rush their completion.
Hence, I was given an important quest to destroy a large migration of Ice slimes that have been migrating from the southwestern mountainous parts of Mondstadt closer to Liyue and were heading to either Springvale or Diluc's winery village.
Seeing as I could fly there and back without any issues, I didn't see a problem going for the kinda far commission, and other than seeing Fischl watching me fly off into the distance atop Mondstadts castle walls there weren't any issues in the actual act of traveling to the quest.
Once I was flying towards the area Katheryne marked on my map as a probable location for the migration I didn't even need to check my map to check if I was in the right place as there was a large parade of a couple of hundred ice slimes of various sizes with large slimes leading the parade hopping and freezing the river that ran between Liyue and Mondstadt as they just followed the river.
"Ah, no wonder this was such an important commission," I muttered as I recalled how this river led to the very fertile lands of northern Liyue that would trade with much of the world and small boats would typically use this river for relatively travel quickly from Liyue to Mondstadt so having the river frozen would hurt commerce between the nations.
I waved my hand from atop my Anemo elemental, and I glowed a light golden as crystal spears sprouted from the ground beneath the river and shattered the ice the slimes were jumping and many of the weaker small slimes just dissolved in the now rushing water before the larger slimes exhaled their Cryo energy and refroze it.
Remembering the bone-chilling cold of the Dragonspine mountains I realized even with my Aura, I didn't want to deal with that crowd of Cryo Slimes that were now jumping at me as I hovered above them by a couple of dozen meters.
"A Lawachurl and some Mitachurls should be good enough," I murmured as a trio of large Schnee glyphs formed on the frozen river beneath me, and with a roar the Cryo Lawachurl and the Mitachurls dove into brutal front-line combat with the Cryo slimes.
The Cyro Lawachurl was able to swiftly pull apart the slimes, even the largest ones as the Lawachurl itself was a Cryo one... In other words, the slimes no matter the size couldn't give terminal frostbite to the Lawachurl. Getting hit by a slime when you were immune to it, I guess was the equivalent of being hit by a water balloon that didn't break.
At least that's what getting hit by an Anemo slime felt like.
So, getting mobbed by a large group of Cryo Slimes atop a river sounds like literally the stupidest thing a person could do. "Humans made projectile weapons for a reason... Not having to fight monsters that will dissolve you within them while freezing you solid is a perfect example." I muttered as my Mitachurls finally were overwhelmed by the number of slimes.
"Well, I guess just a couple Ruin Guards on the riverbanks should finish and mop up the rest." I shrugged making the Anemo elemental fly over and drop me off on the riverbanks as the slimes seemingly knowing I was the creator of the Lawachurl tearing through them began charging at me as I sat down on the collapsed remains of a tree trunk and as my bottom settled onto the tree trunk two Ruin Guards were spawned in front of me that began to likewise tear up the Slimes that were rushing me.
Honestly watching my Ruin Guards and other summonses tear apart Fatui and even other Hilichurls can make me a bit queasy but watching my Ruin Guards just stomp onto what amounted to be a water balloon was truly entertaining.
It was only the sight of my Ruin Guards twitching and whirling around that I felt my instincts kick in and I franticly rolled forward and looked behind me seeing someone who was all but standing behind me and now pouting at not being able to fully sneak up upon me.
"Yelan... May I help you?" I asked her and as I took her in, I noticed her magical jacket still had a slight bit of glow to it showing how she snuck up to me with only my Ruin Guards enhanced targeting systems noticing her.
"What else would I be here for? Those slimes have cost Liyue more than ten million Mora in the week they have stopped up the rivers, especially with the Rite of Descension just around the corner people coming from North of Liyue can't safely reach the nation with all the slimes that have been born due to all the upheaval in the Leylines." Yelan shrugged and I couldn't fault her for that.
"Well, my summons has this part of migration handled. Have your Liyue forces dealt with them already elsewhere?" I asked relaxing slightly as Yelan hopped over the tree trunk I was sitting upon and leaned up against it as she hummed in thought not answering my question.
"Seeing as you are back in Liyue's land I wonder if I could... Encourage you to tell me how you have such odd magic despite you not being an Adeptus or another supernatural race?" She pondered as she folded her arms beneath her large breasts and pushed them up almost absently but with the way her slitted eyes tightened on my form; I knew she was doing all this to make me open up to her questioning.
I shrugged at her questioning and answered frankly with a chuckle. "Heh, it's a bloodline ability so it's not surprising you haven't seen or heard of it. Now Yelan I have an important question and maybe a favor we both will profit from."
Yelan perked up with me offering something we could both possibly profit from and waved for me to continue. "I have actionable intelligence that as the Anemo God Barbatos returns his Holy Lyre Di Himmel to his church today, the Fatui Harbinger Signora will attempt to assassinate him to steal an even more important divine artifact all Archons carry. Should you and your little watcher over there help?" I said pointing at the cliff above us with a woman standing just over the cliff watching us. "I will convince and use my favor as the Honorary Knight of Favonius that helped save Mondstadt to allow you and your forces to take Signora into your... Tender care for their actions in Liyue previously."
Yelan frowned as this offer was far above what she was planning to deal with today so she bit her lip and clapped her hands loudly and the woman who was atop the cliffs above us jumped down and instead of using a glider like people in Mondstadt would have. She nimbly kicked and caught herself on the cliff walls as she fell.
"Lady Ganyu, you heard him from up there... Did he lie about the intelligence he offered?" Yelan asked Ganyu as she fell the last couple meters from the cliff walls and landed beautifully beside her partner.
Ganyu stared at me with her lavender eyes before lightly nodding. "He isn't lying and if such an opportunity to solidify Liyue's position against Sneznahya's advances can be taken. I believe such an opportunity could be used to barter for the removal of the Fatui out of Liyue until at least after the Rite of Descension."
Yelan brushed her gloved hand over her face as she sighed and nodded to Ganyu's thoughts of the situation I was offering and then she spoke. "Are you sure it's only Signora? I imagine no one wants a prolonged battle between vision wielders, an Archon, versus several of the Fatui harbingers within their city... Because attempting to assassinate an Archon even for those scum is delusional, to expect only one Harbinger to be successful at such a task." Yelan prodded.
Honestly, now that I thought about it. There may very well be more than one Harbinger here in Mondstadt as in Liyue and Inazuma they had more than one Harbinger worming their way through the nation and for all I know another Harbinger could just be in wait. "Honestly all I have is a relatively definitive time for this assassination to take place and with how you all pushed the Fatui from Liyue back into Mondstadt when you fought Childe and Signora... It's certainly possible Childe being an accomplished archer may act to dissuade reinforcements from reaching Barbatos." I said weakly as I hadn't counted on another Harbinger being in the picture.
The two women shared a look and Yelan spoke. "Give me a minute to speak with my compatriot as this is something extremely important." I nodded as my summons finally finished clearing up the slimes behind him and stood behind me with the large Lawachurl huffing and standing beside me.
Finally, five minutes later they broke apart with Ganyu walking over to me as I dismissed my summons making her smile at me disarming and showing I was willing to speak without a literal monster hanging over our shoulders. "Ok, Jake I am gladdened that you are willing to trust us with such a... Sensitive issue of national security for Mondstadt but in the end, we both have agreed to help you by standing guard in Mondstadt for a couple of days by posing as a tourist if necessary."
It was nice of her to offer to give me a bit of leeway in case they didn't show up but in the end, I felt like the definitive moments of this world were ordained to happen in any case whether we did anything or not.
"You guys have ever flown before?" I asked with a trio of Anemo elementals forming out of the trio of Glyphs and Yelan facepalmed as Ganyu raised her hand in affirmation as if she was in some kind of school.
"Oh, I have!" She smiled not noticing Yelan sighing as she powerwalked over to me and began inspecting the Anemo Elementals.
"It's so interesting not having to defend myself being so close to an elemental being... Can you summon a Geo Elemental?" She asked me hopefully and I had to shake my head as I had never dealt with a Geovishap before and speaking of which I needed to kill that massive Geovishap boss that a lot of characters used as an ascension material in Liyue. It could act as a tank for my summons and probably even give Harbingers a bit of trouble for a couple of minutes.
"Not yet but in the future, I will be able to. By the way, your name is Ganyu correct? My name is Jake Bariss and it's nice to meet you" I said giving Ganyu a quick handshake as she introduced herself and I looked away from the cute form of Ganyu who went back to inspecting the tame Anemo Elementals. "Yelan if we wish to make it to Mondstadt before the time of need then we will need to fly via this summons."
Yelan nodded and sighed. "Very well but I am going to ride behind you so that summon doesn't just disappear beneath me. You understand what I mean right?" She said with a saccharine smile as she alluded to me just dropping her as we were flying.
"That's fine. We can both fit onto one of those as you have seen me and my friend fly on them before. Ganyu will you be alright riding one on your own?" I asked almost scared she would ask to like ride in my lap as well.
"Oh, uhm yes!" She spoke turning away from the Elemental she was inspecting and blushing as she realized how absorbed she was. "I will be perfectly fine even if there is great turbulence so do not worry!" She said to assuage us, and I knew that to be very well true with how she bore the bloodline of the Qilin Holy Beast.
"Well in that case. Let's get going as the slimes have been well and dealt with." I said seeing the only sign of the previous battle being the last few chunks of ice slowly drifting down the river.