'Why is he contacting us now, I think you have your first mission merlin.' I said as I landed on the ground a few kilometers away from the city in sight.
Sensing me halt, the slime demon who was ahead of me stopped in his tracks but I sent him a mental message telling him to wait for me near city gates as I needed to answer an important call.
Standing atop the thick branch of an unknown tree, I spread my soul force in my surroundings and confirming that nobody was near my location, I accepted the call of silent reaper.
"Good evening, Mr. Lightning emperor, I hope you are doing well." He asked me politely.
"I have been better, why have you called me?" Merlin said taking control over the body, trying to show displeasure because of how our last exchange ended up due to demon princess interference.
"It seems you haven't forgiven us for our lack of hospitality last time and that is understandable, you also know her real identity, and must understand how difficult it is for us to restrain someone of her status."
"That is not my concern, you should understand better than me the consequences of keeping a beast which you can't control."
"We understand and are truly embarrassed to have caused you such inconvenience and thus have prepared an appropriate compensation for you, we hope you will accept our apology and the incident won't affect our future cooperation."
"And what would that be?" Merlin asked in an interesting tone.
"I know that sir lightning emperor needs high ranking beast cores to increase his soul force and thus we have prepared two, rank 12 beast cores for you." Silent reaper said and my eyes widened in shock at the mention of Rank 12 cores and 2 at that.
'Damn, it took me 2 days to get two, rank 10 cores and merlin got two rank 12 beast cores without doing anything, this world isn't fair.' I reminded myself.
'This Genesis organization is quite wealthy; to think it would give two rank 12 beast cores just like that.' Merlin commented.
"Do you think a mere rank 12 beast cores are enough to buy me?" Merlin said and brought out a purple beast core from his inventory which was covered with golden runes and shone dazzlingly illuminating our surroundings before storing it back.
"Do you think the place where I came from lacked such things?" Merlin said, referring to the mysterious Pengia ruins, which was also revered as the birthplace of runemaster's and one of the four most mysterious places on planet Amora.
It was without a doubt a poison dragon's core and soon the expression on the silent reaper's corporeal figure turned to that of disbelief.
"A dragon's co…, i apologize we didn't have such intention, we just hope to mend our relationships with you that is all." Silent reaper said.
"Even though it is lacking, I will accept your apology but if you are sincere apart from the compensation, i want a favor due from you personally?" Merlin said.
"This…" Silent reaper started thinking but before he could reply Merlin continued.
"I am not asking for a favor from genesis but from you, don't you think you are somewhat responsible for handling the situation with demon princess slackly." Merlin blamed the silent reaper.
"All right, i agree but please be informed that i won't be able to fulfill any request which is against the code of genesis or my personal principle or morale." Silent reaper said, limiting our options but we didn't care much about it.
'Nice move merlin.' I said, We only needed assistance from him until I became strong enough to hold my own against stronger opponents and it won't be long before I reach the silent reaper's level of strength.
"Very well." Merlin said, agreeing to the silent reaper's condition.
"Then let me come to the main reason why I have called you today." Silent reaper said and a holographic list of items appeared in front of us.
"I have here with me your first mission as a Rune master. I have discussed the requirements with the upper echelon, please review the details while I will hold on to the call." the 6th seat silent reaper said and some holographic designs of airships, armored vehicles and other things appeared in front of us.
[Mission Type: Rune forging mission]
[Description: 5 Continental airships Rune forging, 25 Armored vehicles Rune forging, 10,000 Runic weapons and 5,00 Runic scrolls, Runic Bombs...….]
"Are you people out of your mind?" This was the first reaction of merlin.
"You expect me to complete these things and 2 similar missions then complete 3 golden missions and advance to golden rank in six months." Merlin said and continued.
"This mission alone will take me two months to finish." Merlin shouted.
'Come on don't lie, how much time will it take you to finish them?' I asked because Merlin told a lie saying it would take him at least two months to complete the mission.
'I can complete them in a week if you have enough mana that too working at leisure pace.' Merlin replied shamelessly.
[Rewards: Six, Rank 12 Beast cores, Twelve rank 10 beast cores, 10,000 gold coins and 1,500 contribution points]
"I think I will climb the golden rank by myself, as you can see, it took me 2 days to complete one gold rank mission, it will be faster this way for me to climb the golden rank than to fulfill your requirements in front of these measly rewards." Merlin said.
"We can always negotiate the price unless it is not too unreasonable, that is." Silent reaper said respectfully.
"I want 10 rank 12 cores, it doesn't matter whether they are of human, beast or demon cores, Rank 10 beast cores are not useful to me at my current cultivation level so you can exclude them and gold coins and contribution points will be what you have decided."
"Very well but it will take some time to arrange your reward. I hope you won't mind waiting a little longer.
"As long as you do your best I don't mind waiting but do it before you have arranged my second mission." Merlin said.
"Will do and regarding the problem you mentioned before concerning time to become a gold rank member, I also have a solution for that but I wonder will you be willing to accept my offer?" Silent reaper asked in a serious tone.
"And what would that be?" Merlin asked.
"We have recently received a special mission, if you help us finish this mission successfully you won't have to complete any gold rank mission and we will promote you to the rank of gold member on completion of this mission immediately along with a confirmed ticket to the beast continent." Silent reaper said and the details of this special mission also piqued my interest.
"I am listening." Merlin said and next second the holographic screen changed in front of me.
"You will be participating in an expedition with a team of other 4 people but I must warn you about the difficulty of this which mission is the highest tier of platinum rank, maybe even crystal rank we don't know about yet." Silent reaper said as I read through the mission briefing.
[Mission Id: ???]
[Mission Issuer: Shadow empress]
[Mission Requirement: Help shadow empress conquer the dragon's lair last floor situated in southern continent, The person referred as Lightning emperor will have to perform following tasks:
1) Actively working as a rune master and disabling any traps on the way.
2) Provide assistance pertaining to your job whenever the need arises.
3) Maintain strict confidentiality of information.
5) Need to sign a soul contract with the Shadow empress at a condition determined by her.
"Are you kidding me, you want me to work with that crazy bitch who almost killed me last time." Merlin snapped at the silent reaper.