There was a brief pause before Erik responded.
"Hohohoho, young man you must be quite exceptional to have already started calling her by Lys! She never let's anyone but me!"
Erik seemed elated that his daughter finally found some real companions and he would have to worry much less about watching over her adventures.
"I'd love for you all to stick by her as she develops her aura, it's much better to have friends rather than a bunch of rowdy guards for travel companions."
"Oh and of course, being her friends I won't mind assisting you all in your futures as well."
Being the Duke of North Landia, Erik was quite rich and since it was just him and his daughter he was excited to have trust worthy people around her. In this world where power is most important, trust was exceedingly hard to come by and he felt as if this was a great chance for his daughter.
"If any one of you struggle to keep up with Lys you can just let me know and Il have some resources to help you break through. I'm going to be blunt, trust is hard to come by, so I'd like to see you all stick together."
Niss smiled and took the chance to answer first, Lys was still embarrassed by her fathers words.
"Of course! We made a great team and I think all of us would be happy to have Lys stick by us going forward." His charming nature was shining in the situation.
"Good, forgive me since it took this long to notice but aren't you Eldric's son?" Erik looked towards Niss with a smile.
"Yes, Baron Eldric Shadowmere was my father. I will eventually take his place as Baron of Rivenwood but for now, I have left it in the hands of my mother while I gather my own strength."
"That is very wise Niss, I respect those who set out to gain their own power rather than having it handed to them."
"Thank you, sir"
The group was all smiles as they chatted away and finished their lavish breakfast. Everyone of them was in agreement that they should carry on dungeon clears as a permanent group. Lys could be seen glancing at Niss from the corner of her eye and getting excited all throughout the morning.
'Oh god, not both of them...'
"Now that we have finished our meal, why don't all of you follow me to our treasury."
"O-oh no we couldn't possibly accept any gifts! You are far to generous!" Siarra was speaking to Erik in a slight panic as she was worried about being to greedy in his eyes.
"No, no, you have nothing to worry, I am giving my dear sweet Lys another protection artifact and I'm happy to part with anything C-Rank or below, one each for the rest of you." Erik was a kind hearted man, having lost his wife and refusing to re-marry he would not have a son. He was worried about passing his responsibilities to Lys, but as long as she had the power to handle it then nobody would have a problem. Knowing this he had to aid her in her journey as much as he could.
....
Inside the basement of Frost Manor, There was a large room with many artifacts and chests full of other treasures such as gems, jewelry and gold. Erik had gone directly to a shelf in the back of the room while the rest of the group looked at artifacts towards the front, which Erik had told them were C-Rank artifacts. Lys followed her father and he gave her a small silver ring with one large diamond placed atop the center. This was a ring that her mother had worn when she was an adventurer and it had fantastic defensive properties. When the wearer was in danger of receiving an attack that would end their life the ring would trigger a powerful barrier to block one attack for the wearer before it had a cooldown of 3 days over which it would regather ambient mana on its own.
Trevor had chosen a ring as well, a large and thick stone band with runic carvings engraved in it. This C-rank artifact would boost his earth magic affinity and help him in using his earth magic with reduced cost. Trevor was mostly reliant on infusing his aura to do direct combat but he knew that in order to take his skills to the next level he would have to start bringing his earth magic into his fighting style and this artifact was perfect for amplifying that.
Siarra, being slightly more support minded, chose a plain looking brown leather pouch with a gold drawstring at the top. This of course was a dimensional artifact, despite the small size it actually contained a space within the bag of 12x12 square meters. All higher rank adventurers and even most nobles had this kind of artifact, it was considered essential to any group so that they would not have to carry so much equipment on their journeys. The bag would never feel the weight of items placed within it and any item could be withdrawn that was put inside with just a thought. Only a few restrictions existed for this magic bag, you could not place living things inside it, also it was impossible to store other dimensional artifacts inside the bag.
Curt, went with an amulet that would amplify his healing in a small area around him, allowing him to spread his aura to multiple people at once within five meters of him. This was rather important for a healer, considering they would normally have to touch the person they wished to infuse their aura in. With this amulet he could heal the groups injuries from a safer distance, allowing him to do so mid battle.
Finally, Niss was looking at his C-Rank artifact. He had damaged his rondel dagger extensively in the last fight to the point where it was essentially garbage. After all it was a F-Rank dagger passed down to him by his father. So now Niss held in his hands a much smaller dagger, it was extremely sharp and wide, meant for bleeding out targets that were stabbed by it. This artifact had another purpose, it amplified fire magic that was cast by wielder.
Niss was contemplating if this was the right choice, after all he now had his Kama which was beautiful and deadly, and having grown quite attached to it he wasn't sure he needed two weapons anymore.
'Spell tome'
'Close'
'Very strong'
Hearing Nyx's voice, a painful headache overwhelmed him, but Niss was more focused on her voice. This time she had sounded like she was in pain, her voice quiet and sad. Niss felt a wave of emotions role over him before he rubbed his temples and set down the dagger artifact, shrugging off the pounding in his mind.
Taking another moment to look around, Niss saw what she must have been hinting at. A spell tome on the table by Siarra was glowing faintly as if calling out to him now, he hadn't noticed this before and knew it must have been Nyx's influence on his mind that gave the book this soft light. Walking over to the book he held it up and inspected it. Everyone else had finished picking out their artifacts and informed Erik, Niss being the last one, had all eyes on him as he held the book with an amazed look on his face.
"That spell tome was identified as a B-rank artifact but mysteriously none could tell the spell or origin of the spell held within, I had almost forgot it was here since nobody wanted to take the risk learning an unknown spell tome." Erik looked at Niss with slightly squinted eyes, "If you want it, even though it is B-Rank, I won't stop you, just know that you are taking quite a risk."
"I feel something from this book, like it's calling me to it." Niss stated plainly as he held the spell tome.
"It is yours then, let us head upstairs and continue our conversation from earlier." Erik had a weird feeling about the book and had never wanted to risk using it or giving it to any of his men. Niss however was a strange case, he felt differently about it when looking at him holding the book, thinking maybe it was meant to be that he hadn't used or sold it.