That night Sam slept without any care in the world until noon. "Wake up. How long do you think you are going to sleep?", Mia who was bored and had nothing to do decided to annoy Sam. "Go away. I don't want to wake up yet", Sam signalled her to leave him alone but she opened the curtain causing light to fell on Sam's face. "Let's go, lunch has been served", Mia told Sam.
He was annoyed but couldn't do anything so decided to go and have lunch. After lunch Sam decided to take a walk and went to the guild. As usual Tia was present at the table and he went straight to her.
"Quite sometime since I had last seen you", Tia smiled and asked Sam about his whereabouts. Sam told her his story after doing some modifications like omitting the palace, Mia and other stuff he wanted to hide.
"Adventurers often go on long and ardous journey. Looks like you are ready to take the next step", she took out a small wooden box from a cabinet and placed it in front of Sam. Opening the box revealed a small medal that was shining under the light. Puzzled at the medal, Sam asked," What is this?".
"This is the reward from clearing the dungeon quest. Everyone was presented with this. I knew you wouldn't kick the bucket so easily, so I kept it safely", Tia replied calmly and added further,"You can have your rank upgraded to E". With this she asked for his card and placed it in the machine which changed the card's description. Usually upto C rank the same card is used and only the content is modified. Above C rank, new cards are issued which have some extra functionalities inscribed in it.
Seeing the E in his rank Sam was extremely happy and immediately went back to the inn and told everyone. "Great for you", Haru took his card out and showed it to Sam. It now spelled C rank and Sam was shocked. Turns out Haru and Melodia had already gone and completed their rank upgradation.
"This calls for a celebration. Where's Rose?", Sam asked noticing she wasn't present. Melodia told Sam that Rose had some work to do and will come back in the night. Their celebration went into the night and Rose also joined later.
Melodia and Haru decided to take a break from work and visit their home since it has been a long time.
"Wait for us to return and we will go on more adventures", Haru, Melodia and Sam fistbumped each other and both went their way. Now Sam, Rose and Mia were left.
"Let's go Mia", Sam took Mia to the adventurers guild to have her register and also to take a quest since he was running low on money. Seeing the building bustling with all kinds of adventurers Mia was barely containing her excitement. She was asking Sam many questions to which Sam replied as much as he could.
Tia saw Sam and gave him a smile and greeted him. "Here to take a job?", Tia asked Sam. Sam pushed Mia forward and explained everything to Tia.
"What is your name Miss?, Tia asked while taking out the form and the ranking crystal. "Mia Medr.. eeek!", Sam pinched Mia in the back to stop her from telling her real name. "Mia Nightingale. Her name", Sam completed her sentence while Mia had slight tears in her eyes. She gave Sam I will kill you look but corrected her voice and said the same name and filled the form.
"Now just put your hands on this crystal and it will measure your rank", Tia pushed the crystal in front of her and stepped back. Mia placed her hands on the crystal and poured her mana in. The crystal responded by giving orange yellow color.
"Congratulations! Your rank came out to be C", Tia informed them. Mia had a delighted expression and celebrated by jumping around and then hugging Sam. While Sam found it unbelievable. It took him everything to rank up but he was still E rank and she came today and got a C rank. 'Well she is a royalty', Sam thought this and congratulated Mia.
On her way back Mia had the adventurer card in her hands and would show the card to everyone passing by with a proud expression. "Put the card away please", Sam told Mia after seeing the annoyed look people were giving him.
They planned to take a job starting tomorrow and spent the rest of the day lazing around. The next day Mia woke up early and also woke Sam up. Her excitement for her first quest didn't let her sleep the whole night. She dragged Sam all the way to the guild and picked quest herself.
"Let me see that quest", Sam took the paper from her hands and read the content. It was for killing an ogre that had been recently seen in the village of Aharen. He smacked her in the head and she bent down from the pain. "Ouch! What are you doing?", she angrily complained him hitting her. Sam picked an easy quest of collecting herbs and went to the desk and registered it in her name.
Mia was still waiting for answer on why he hit him. "Have you seen and orc before?", Sam asked seeing that she won't let it go until hear a good reason. "No", Mia replied to him. Sam explained to her how powerful an orc is and how quest at her rank are difficult for her because of her lack of experience.
"Mmm", Mia made a disappointing face but went with Sam since he was the expert. The herb garden was located inside the forest and various types of herbs can be harvested here. It was three hours away from the city. Sam and Mia reached the place by afternoon. As the name suggested, Sam identified many types of herbs and even took some for himself. But the herb they were looking for was A-grade Silverleen herb, a rare type of herb used to make high grade rejuvenating potion and pills. Finding it was quite a difficult task since this herb had the special characteristic of hiding itself when approached.
To approach it one has to hide his/her presence at least by ninety percent. When Mia told Sam about this Sam was as dumbfounded as he could. He only took the job thinking it would be easy to find because all they had to look for it. Nobody told him about the hiding part. 'Huh! Is this what Tia meant by?'. When Sam went to register the job, Tia looked at the paper and asked if this was what he really wanted and that he knew about the herb to which Sam just nodded in yes.
'How dumb of me'. [Maybe this is the perfect chance for you to practice that technique], among the techniques taught by his master Cain there was one technique which relied on ones presence camouflaging. 'What a pain', Sam usually avoided practicing that technique but he got no other choice. His funds were already running low and he had no intention of going back empty handed.
"Do not disturb me", Sam told Mia to look out for monsters and only hen warn him. The first step of the technique was to cover himself with the sword aura completely while moulding it in his shape. Then use the aura barrier to cut connection with the world. This step required the most practice. By cutting means you stop interfering with the surrounding energy and elements. This also means your senses also cut from the surrounding. The last step involved spreading his awareness by using thin threads of aura to percieve the surrounding.
Sam had tried once but the dullness of his senses made him throw up and he felt nauseas for the whole day. Two hours went by but Sam was only able to hide himself fifty percent. When Mia saw Sam starting to disappear for the first time she dropped the sandwich she was eating in surprise.
It took Sam the whole day to execute the full technique and they were able to collect the required amount of herb. After undoing the technique Sam felt so nauseous that he rested for one full hour before they returned.