"Ah. Where are my manners." Harvey suddenly turned over to the group. They were all curiously looking between him and Ervin.
Faintly smiling, Harvey said, "Everyone, this is the guy I was talking about. Meet Ervin. One of the most focused, yet reliable guys I met so far."
Ervin calmly nodded at the group as the attention turned to him. "I'm just doing what I should."
His calm smile and polite tone left a positive impression on the group.
One of the beautiful women in particular brilliantly smiled as she looked at Ervin from top to bottom. A certain aura of nobility soothed out of her presence.
She naturally took the attention as she spoke with a melodic voice, "You're quite humble. Reaching the Middle Stage so quickly is certainly something to brag about."
Ervin casually shrugs, lightly chuckling. "I guess I haven't really thought too much about it. I just really like studying magic."
"See? I can't compare to this guy's magical dedication." Harvey playfully laughed.
As they were about to descend in some more conversation before getting the party started, Ervin turned his Magical Senses away. He could tell that the beautiful woman was checking him out and had some level of interest in him.
But none of that mattered to Ervin. People's looks just really don't interest him as much as their mind does.
Unlike many others, Ervin always had an greater control over his Magical Sense because of his studious practice.
That control only increases with his new breakthrough. He could at least hear bits and snippets of conversations if he focused extremely hard.
And in a festive environment like this party, who's really focusing that much on listening to others?
The snippets of conversations for the most part weren't that interesting to Ervin. Some of the more interesting ones were discussing the Arts they were currently studying.
But nothing much that deviated from the standard.
Just when Ervin was about to give up on hearing anything interesting, one intriguing conversation instantly perked him up.
Ervin had a good feeling about this one. He decided to take a leap of faith, grabbing Harvey to ask him to show him to the bar to grab a drink.
Briskly taking their leave even though Ervin interrupted the group's conversation, he led Ervin to that conversation spot.
He got close to them and suddenly stopped.
"Hm? Ervin? Is something wrong?" Harvey curled his brows. He actually thought Ervin was loosening up since he wanted a drink.
But to Harvey's question, Ervin adopted a thinking poise, telling him, "Sorry. Hold on. I think I just heard something interesting for us."
"Huh?" Harvey curled his brows. But he did not walk off, instead patiently waiting for whatever Ervin had heard. He would be a fool to not trust even Ervin's instinct at this point.
Close by, Ervin had a much easier time hearing the actual conversations. He made sure that his look was causal as if he was just searching the dance floor.
At the same time, he heard a man's voice say, "Fuck guys. This really can be our big break! All those treasures will improve our lives, improve our Mage Enforcer standing, and improve our entire city! We can't just shy away from this."
There was a brief moment of silence. Assuming the others were in contemplation.
A moment later another man's voice said, "Sure, the chances are there. But it would mean jack shit if our lives are lost. We're all only at the Early stage, without more people, we're absolutely screwed."
"You both raise a good point." At this point, a gentle woman's voice spoke up. "But, getting more people is both a positive and a risk. Anyone stronger than us, then I don't believe it will be a fair share. On the same level, then we'll need a considerable amount of people, which can cause chaos among ourselves. Then again, nothing can be done if we just stand around talking to each other..."
"Mn..." The other two men gave grunts in agreement. The feeling of going out came to them. But in a party like this one, they truly did not know how to put themselves out there.
"Damn it." The first man spoke again. "Of all the time to find this shit out, why did it I have to be just a day before the party and our long days off...we may not get another good chance before someone else finds it."
Ervin's eyes gleamed when they came to this point. It was more than a prime opportunity to see what lucky chance they were discussing.
He pulled on Harvey's shoulder to get his attention and began walking to this group of three.
A few steps were enough for the duo to see two decently handsome men and one pretty woman talking to each other in low whispers despite the blasting noise of the music.
Their magical auras weren't that intense compared to many other Early Stages here. It was only slightly more intense than Harvey's, but a difference like this was pretty much negligible.
Ervin's approach caused the trio to perk up from their conversation, shifting their attention directly to the duo. Their brows raised in curiosity, a small amount of tension filling their bodies.
Directly approaching anyone, especially if one is a Mage is something that nobody can take so causally.
Ervin wore his best polite smile as he approached while Harvey's lips curled into a puzzled smile.
With a wave, Ervin directly said, "Hello. I'll cut directly to the chase. I couldn't help but overhear your conversation and feel quite interested in this opportunity. You don't mind telling us, right? My name's Ervin. And this is my partner Harvey."
"You..." The trio jolted upon hearing those names.
As fellow new recruits, any notable news among them gets spread around fast. The news of Ervin saving his partner and achieving the Middle Stage is considerable news.
There was also the fact that many superiors could safely say while Ervin wasn't anything too special in terms of talent, his dedication and reliability in battle were completely consistence.
It's why the trio eased themselves despite being in front of a Middle Stage Mage. There was some credibility to Ervin.
The man who spoke first gave a polite smile as he extended his hand, "My name is Glenn. And this Jerry and Alice. Nice to meet someone with some amount of fame."
Ervin gave a firm handshake back and spoke in a humble tone. "It's nothing really. I'm always looking for new opportunities to grow which is what got me over here."
"Trust me. Whenever this guy has his mind set on something, he'll boldly take the plunge all of the time." Harvey lightly chuckled.
"I see..." Glenn quietly murmured.
In that brief moment, he shared a look with his other partners. They seemingly came to a silent agreement from just their eyes.
Putting their attention back on Ervin, Gleen began to say, "Well, the opportunity we're talking about came from a very reliable source that we can't really share at this time. You'll just have to trust us. But the thing is, were only told of this news late at night yesterday. So, we only have this day to do some scouting since we want to first discover this place before the senior enforcers do so."
He blurted everything in one go. Admittedly, Glenn knew this was a leap of faith for him. Things could get bad if these two had the sense to just report they're potentially hiding something important from their seniors.
A more calm situation would've allowed Glenn to choose his words more carefully.
But feeling the pressure along with Ervin's friendly personality got him to say more than he really should.
Thankfully for Glenn's group, Ervin and Harvey merely looked curious.
"Oh? I always heard around that there are good things in the woods if you search hard enough. But that comes at the cost of having to deal with those beasts. What do you think?" Ervin turned his sights onto Harvey.
"I..." Harvey slowly trailed off. "I'm not sure. It all just feels..."
Alice recognizes the mix of desire and hesitation on Harvey's face. She smiled at him, saying, "I get it. Our words don't sound so reliable, and the danger is always prevalent in the woods. But if you give us that trust, then we all can come across the valuables of a demonic criminal! This demonic criminal was the most infamous for his stealing and escaping techniques. Our source says he died without ever leaving the Twilight Wood and he hid all of his valuables in a specific place. Our source says if we can scout out that area and come across that place. If we can actually find the place where all the valuables are, we can return it to our superior forces for profit, doing a good dead and even raise ourselves in their eyes."