He's truly here.
In front of Hadrian, enjoying a meal was a young man. His hair was black and slick, his face slightly above average looking.
Haldon.
Hadrian's lips twitched. Not wanting a repeat of what happened with Bagdona, he suppressed his flaring emotions.
"B-but boss said I could…. " The mage holding tightly to Alia's arm mumbled.
Alia winced.
"Is he here?" Haldon cut him off, his tone bored. "Go find a brothel or something."
The mage let out a sharp breath, squeezing Alia's hand tighter for a moment with mountainous strength, he shoved her away from him in one quick push.
In the mini hall, the clanking of metal was still loud but muffled compared to when they had entered.
Unlike outside it was hot in here and smelt of metal. Hadrian wiped the sweat off of his forehead every once in a while.
Peering into Haldon's essense sea, Hadrian was not surprised.
He is indeed a rank two.
He made an attempt to call at the fog. Immediately, his head buzzed and perception was disoriented.
Tsk, I haven't even made contact with it.
Haldon, unlike Bagdona, didn't seem to notice Hadrian peering into his essence sea.
A rank two space path Mage.
"Let me finish this, then we'll see to it." Haldon said without looking up to them.
"You don't remember me, do you?" Hadrian, through his main vessel, muttered.
Haldon's head rose and his calm eyes went to Hadrian, studying him.
"Should I?" He said with a rise of his right eyebrow and went back to focus on his meal.
Right. I'm not even in my main body anymore.
No one spoke for a long moment as Haldon ate his meal.
How will I get out of this?
If before he'd considered it impossible to fight his way away from three rank ones, now there was a rank two.
Thinking of this, a rat ran up from behind the mage who'd groped Alia and ran up his pants and robes, all the way to his left arm.
The mage wiggled and danced chaotically as the others in the room gave him puzzled looks.
Using the poison from the phantom snake,
Which was now in that dull white space after dying to the beast monkey, Hadrian bit down with reinforced fangs.
The mage was of the force path, as such, he could augment his skin.
Unlike with the beast monkey, however, he was a rank one, and Hadrian had a lot more vessels he could pull the states from.
From his phantom horse, his two new horse vessels and all his hunter vessels, his fangs managed to break through the skin of the mage.
The mage gritted his teeth and resorted to tearing off his robes.
Grabbing the rat, he crushed it in his arm, sending its blood and flesh splattering everywhere.
Of course, Hadrian didn't think a regular snake's poison would be fatal to a rank one mage. He did pump a lot of it close to the heart in hopes that it would affect him, though.
"What's wrong with you?" The rank one space path mage asked.
"Do you not see this thing?" The now topless mage flared, his breath hot and sharp.
The others shook their heads, dismissing him.
With a loud sigh, Haldon captured everyone's attention.
"Can you not see I'm trying to eat?" his brows pinched. "I don't need all three of you here."
"I found the girl, I get the artifact." The space path mage spoke up with haste.
"Fine. He can stay, you two can leave." Haldon said.
The two new mages didn't argue. There was a rule of finders that the mob respected.
Collecting his torn robes, the male mage stormed out. The female mage followed.
"Where's Truston?" Alia asked when it was just the four of them left in the mini hall.
If they think I'm connected to Truston, I might as well play the role.
Haldon chuckled.
"Is that what all this was about?" He asked.
Wiping the corners of his mouth, he pushed his plate away from himself.
"Sure, I'll take you to him. Then he'll see the help Gurov sent and know one more of his comrades will be dying to me."
He took his time standing up.
Taking a cup of what Hadrian assumed to be water, He rinsed his mouth.
He then took a gray small stone and chewed it, causing his mouth to be covered with the grey dust.
That was brima. Even Hadrian chewed on it. It maintained the health of one's teeth. Cracked or decayed teeth could even be restored if one chewed enough brima.
Is it out of habit, or do mages still worry about such human problems?
"Come." Haldon said.
Alia followed while Hadrian remained in the mini hall with the space path mage.
Immediately they left the mini hall, the clanking of metal grew louder and more chaotic making Alia's face wince from all the noise.
Haldon, walking in front of her, guided her through the heavy metal work and weapon smiths as they headed for the stairs that led to the basement.
Ignorant, he didn't notice Alia's face twisting and morphing into a different face behind him as they walked.
...
Inside the mini hall, Hadrian calculated his plan.
Well, things did not go exactly as planned, but I have now been given a new opportunity.
His initial target had been the mage he'd bitten into but he was now gone.
He peered into the rank one space mage's essence sea. At the centre of that vast fog sea, a sphere lined with glass-like material spun.
Hadrian did his best to calm himself.
The care free space path mage went and threw himself onto a long couch, not minding the regular human in the mini hall with him.
Nearby, outside the mini hall. A small rat slowly turned into a naked woman. She was tall with a broad forehead. Another one turned to an averagely tall man with short black hair and slightly chubby cheeks.
Aisha and injured knee.