Chapter 56 Taking on a client is like becoming a creator god.
A delicate feather fan peeked out from the car door and beckoned to Ancia like a finger.
Ancia walked over, "Aurora?"
Inside the carriage was Aurora, dressed in a long black dress, still a widow, with a white veil tied around her arm.
Aurora blinked. "Are you going to the Dark Night Guild?"
Ancia got into the carriage. "Yes, what about you? Want to go inside and place a request?"
Aurora: "I do want to, but I have a tricky case to handle, and I'm also worried about what's going on inside."
Ancia was a little curious, "The Dark Night Guild can do anything, their success rate for commissions is very high, and they also have a strong person like Mortley, right? What are you worried about?"
Aurora sighed, a hint of sorrow creeping onto her beautiful face. "Because Merritt is too expensive."
What kind of reason is that? Are they just teasing her like a child?
Seeing the black lines on Ancia's face, Aurora covered her mouth and laughed, "Do you still remember that night at the Nightingale Salon?"
Ancia nodded, "Of course."
Aurora: "Sedell placed an assassination order with the Night Guild against me. I paid three times the price for this information, and then spent all the remaining money to specifically request Mortley to assassinate Sedell and the assassin in return. But now I have a new enemy. What if the Night Guild betrays its employer again for an even higher price?"
This is a very reasonable concern. Ancia nodded understandingly, "Even if there are assassins who are hostile to him, they wouldn't be able to defeat Komertelli's assassination skills, would they?"
Aurora smiled. "Little Ancia, although that man is my political enemy, I can't kill him yet. I need to issue an intelligence report; I don't need Merri. Once I find evidence of his abnormality, someone from above will naturally take action. I can't completely trust the adventurers of the Dark Night Guild; their loyalty is like a thin piece of paper. Just throw more gold at them, and the paper will tear. This matter is too important; I need to find a reliable adventurer."
Ancia had a sudden thought. All adventurers in the Dark Night Guild could request access to the guild's intelligence network based on the quests they received. Their guild rank would increase based on the reward for completing a quest, and they would also receive extra chances to view intelligence at that rank. Moreover, she remembered that Aurora's path to becoming a marquis had been incredibly smooth, without ever encountering any political enemies. She needed to investigate something that hadn't appeared in the game's storyline, so why not start with this person?
This is the perfect opportunity for her.
Ancia said slowly, "I have an absolutely reliable adventurer who will not betray you for personal gain."
Aurora raised an eyebrow, waiting for Ancia to continue, but Ancia only smiled mysteriously and pointed to herself with her raised hand.
Aurora: "Little Ancia, the adventurer you're talking about isn't you, is it?"
Ancia: "It's me."
Aurora: "You? You're joining the Dark Night Guild to become an adventurer?" Her expression slowly changed from amused to serious. "What you said actually makes some sense."
She looked Ancia up and down. A promising student of Gracia, a disciple of the light mage Cheryl, and rumored to have a good relationship with the next pope, Heligaluo, she was indeed the best candidate who would not switch sides to the enemy for personal gain.
Aurora immediately made a decision, "How do you plan to get in? When can I appoint you to accept the commission?"
Ancia hesitated and said, "Just like that?"
Aurora gave her a reproachful look. "Do you think you're some nobody? Your information has already been submitted to the desks of all the powerful and influential. If you want to be an adventurer, you need a conspicuous identity."
Ancia stared blankly as Aurora opened her handbag, pulled out cosmetics that covered the carriage seats, and began to modify Ancia's chin without any trace of magic. However, when Aurora held the mirror up to Ancia, she could no longer recognize who was in the mirror.
Aurora said with satisfaction, "An ordinary little mage, that's your current status."
This face is as plain as water, easily forgotten after a glance, except for the eyes, which remain unchanged.
Ancia was also very satisfied. "Tonight I will appear on the adventurer list of the Dark Night Guild under the code name 'Vine,' and tomorrow you can designate me to accept a commission."
Aurora smiled and said, "I'll be waiting for your good news."
After Ancia stepped off the carriage, it took quite a while for the carriage to slowly drive away.
The tavern was so dilapidated that the words on the sign were illegible, and the door that let in light was even older, with rusty wind chimes on it. When Ancia pushed the door open and went in, it only swayed in the wind without making a sound.
The tavern was packed with customers late at night. They crowded around simple wooden tables, raising their barrels of beer and shouting loudly. The beer foam dripped down the rim of their glasses onto their wrists and then onto the table.
Anciya felt out of place among them. When she opened the door, many people glanced casually at the entrance, but looked away when they saw her.
She calmly made her way through the crowded tables and chairs and sat down at the bar.
The bartender was wiping the glasses with a gray rag that looked like it had been used for ages. He lazily raised his eyelids and asked, "What would you like to drink?"
Ancia recalled the conversation she had seen before and calmly said, "A glass of super spicy lemonade, with three pumps of syrup."
The bartender paused for a moment. "We're out of syrup. Can we get something else?"
Ancia took out three gold coins and pushed them in front of the bartender. "It's okay, I can buy them."
The bartender put down his glass. "Then come with me, sir."
He lifted the curtain behind the counter and led Ancia into the tavern's wine cellar.
There was only a dim candlestick in the wine cellar, barely enough to see what was inside. The bartender walked to a wooden shelf filled with bottles, raised his hand and spun a few bottles. The shelf slowly parted, revealing the passage behind it.
Bartender: "Keep walking straight ahead along the road."
After he finished speaking, he stood still, clearly not intending to lead the way. Ancia had no choice but to walk into the passage, and the wooden frame behind her quickly closed.
The passage was narrow and long, winding and twisting. Only at the end of the illumination range of one lamp could one see the light of another lamp, and all of them were candlelight, not wall lamps powered by magic crystals.
Ancia reflexively raised her finger, wanting to use magic to illuminate it, but then remembered that she was now a wood-type mage, so she had to put it down.
After walking for about ten minutes, a door finally appeared in front of them, and a hoarse voice came from behind the door asking, "Password."
Ancia's expression twisted slightly, but she still answered in a low voice, "We are bats in the night."
The door opened.
The person in the cloak stood behind the door again, closed it, and remained silent.
Ancia walked toward the magic crystal screen that displayed the rotating order forms. This was probably the only magic device in the hall. The type, amount, and recommended level of each order form were displayed on it, but the specific details of the order had to be checked at the front desk.
She stood in front of the magic crystal screen for a while before turning to the front desk and saying, "Register."
The woman at the front desk, who had been dozing with her eyes closed, opened them, her gaze clear. After noticing the three-star mark on Ancia's mage robe, she pulled out a stack of registers from under the table. "Elementalist?"
"Wood element".
"grade?"
Samsung.
"Code name?"
"vine."
The woman picked up a badge from the drawer and activated it with magic. "This is your identity badge. If there is a commission assigned to you, the badge will light up and tell you the details of the commission. Entering your magic within the specified time is equivalent to accepting the commission. The guild will take a 5% cut from each commission."
The badge she handed over had a simple "B" on it, which was Ancia's rank in the guild. It would rise based on her updated star rating and contributions to completing quests, with the highest possible rank being S-rank, which should be Mortley's.
Ancia took the badge. "That's it? No assessment?"
The woman said coldly, "The guild isn't a mage association. What kind of assessment do you need? The fact that you got in here already proves your ability."
Ancia: "What are the contents of the authorization form number 35454?"
The woman pressed her fingers on the bracelet on her wrist. After three seconds, she took out a service form from the bracelet, held it between two fingers, and handed it to Ancia. "Take a look for yourself."
Ancia quickly scanned the information recorded on the paper. It was a B-level intelligence mission, and the difficulty level was normally C-level, but it was raised by one level because the location was in Gracia.
After reading the requirements of the commission, Ancia's expression became subtle for a moment.
[Request details: Obtain Eve Augustine's list of dislikes, including but not limited to the people, items, behaviors, and topics she dislikes. Timeframe: Three months.]
The client chose to remain anonymous, and only the Dark Night Guild knows who placed the commission. However, Ancia is not prepared to buy the client's identity; she doesn't care about the money, but it might expose her acquaintance with Eve.
"I'll take it. Please register me."
The woman operated the system behind the counter, and the status of the scrolling commission number 35454 on the magic device next to her immediately changed, adding a "accepted" mark at the end. She reminded, "The commission has a three-month time limit. If it is not submitted after three months, it will be considered abandoned, and the handling fee will still need to be paid."
Ancia: "Are there any more quests in Gracia?"
The woman searched for a while, then said, "No."
Ancia nodded and returned to the tavern along the same route.
In the long underground passage, she brushed past Murtrie, and Ancia's heart jumped into her throat, but Murtrie only glanced at her disguised face as if he didn't recognize her.
After leaving the tavern, Ancia breathed a sigh of relief, "Luckily, I didn't use any magic and didn't expose my magic fluctuations."
For high-ranking classes, everyone's magical energy fluctuations have unique markings that make them easily identifiable.
The next day, Aurora, disguised, issued a request. She flipped through the list of adventurers provided by the woman and randomly pointed to a newcomer, "Her."
The woman paused slightly. "This is a new user who just registered yesterday. Should we consider switching to someone else?"
Aurora said meaningfully, "No need, I trust her."
The customer is the creator god. The woman had advised him once, so he didn't say anything more and directly registered his information.
At the same moment, the badge that Ancia was playing with lit up, and a note came out of the badge.
[Commission Content: Investigate the Marquis Moreno's movements and find evidence of his unusually expanding power. Timeframe: Six months.]
Ancia channeled her wood-type magic into the badge, which dimmed, indicating that she had accepted it.
Everything is proceeding according to plan, and we are just waiting for the start of the second academic year.
As the maple leaves once again turned red, Ancia entered her second year of school. The main storyline had progressed to one-third of its length, and Gracia welcomed a new batch of freshmen.
Among them was Connor, son of the Marquis Moreno.
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