Calamity Upon This World

It had now been 3 days since the formation of the cleansers, and now William, Jasmine, Raya, and Max were sitting in carriages as they made their way towards the newly discovered dungeon. They were supposed to escort the guards inside.

"John, are you good?" Jasmine asked, concerned, as she looked at the haggard and tired figure of William in his disguise, who looked like he hadn't slept in days.

While he had told his party to just use his alias while addressing him, they refused it, saying how it made them feel more distant than they were, and instead called him using 'his' name, John, which he had given when he was registering.

William understood that they just wanted to be friends with him, and since they didn't have any malicious intent, he didn't refuse their good will, even though he merely considered them acquaintances at best.

And as for the reason behind his tired state, it was due to him not having made any progress with his aura mastery despite training like a madman for the past 3 days.

Michael had told him to try and visualise the kind of man he wants to become in the future and to understand why he wanted an aura.

While William found the advice a bit pretentious, almost like those hidden old monsters in the Xianxia stories who give the MC cryptic advice to confuse him instead of just saying it like a normal person,.

But at this point, he was desperate, and after a lot of thinking, he had an answer.

'I want to become strong in the future, and for that, I need aura'

While he wanted to reach the apex of magic, he didn't think the aura would respond kindly if he asked for its help just to master another energy, so he went with the second-best option.

And unsurprisingly, Aura still didn't respond to him; it seems that Michael's advice was complete bullshit, just like he had expected.

"Yeah, I'm fine; don't worry," he finally replied to Jasmine's question with a lie.

William was in fact not fine; if anything, he was pissed and wanted to let loose, but thankfully he was going to the perfect place for such a task.

Jasmine looked unconvinced, but she didn't want to bother him, so she didn't pursue the matter any further, and before long, they had finally arrived at the place where they were meant to meet the guy who had commissioned the mission.

**

"Lord Lark, the adventurers are here," said a butler as he entered a large tent, where inside on a chair sat a tall and lanky man in fancy-looking clothes with a monocle on his right eye.

"At long last, it's time for me to finally get my long-awaited harvest," Lark replied as he stood up with a smile on his face, which would put most scammers to shame.

Once Lark exited the tent along with his butler, he saw four adventurers standing near a carriage.

He instantly moved to the handsome-looking black youth standing in the middle, who exuded an aura of authority.

Lark had been informed of the rising star of the Adventurers Guild, who had skyrocketed into the spotlight like a comet.

"I greet the famous adventurer Edge Lord; I have heard great things about you," Lark said as he held out his hand for William.

William met the handshake, as he said.

"It's a pleasure meeting you, sir, with us here. You can rest assured about the safety of your workers and your profits."

"Oh, please, Lark is just fine. For such a great and capable adventurer like you, I have great trust in your team and your future," Lark replied as his already wide smile grew even wider.

"Very well, Lark. I'm glad to see you have faith in me, and I assure you that you won't regret it."

After a bit of 'building connections' or, as William likes to call it, professional boot licking,.

Both of them moved away as William introduced his newly formed team.

"Lark, meet my team of cleaners."

"Guys, introduce yourselves."

Waiting for their queue, Max, Raya, and Jasmine stepped forward.

"I'm Jasmine Verona, sir; it's a pleasure to meet you," she said with enthusiasm.

"Raya Kelter, pleased to meet you," she said in a calm voice before stepping back.

"Max, it's a pleasure meeting you, sir," Max said as he held out his hand for Lark to shake.

Lark was pleasantly surprised to see the straight-forwardness of the adventurer, and he gladly shook his hand.

After this, William and his group went towards the miner they were supposed to protect, and Lark went back inside his tent.

"What do you think about them, sir?" the butler asked Lark.

"Scary," Lark commented.

"What do you mean, sir?" the butler exclaimed.

"That black-haired boy, while talking to me, was observing everything in the entire campsite to see if I was hiding something."

The monocle on Lark's right eye was an A-rank artifact he had spent years worth of money on, and it allowed him to see the flow of mana around someone.

And he could see the mana spreading from William and covering everything—something that required extreme mana control and precision.

'If he wanted Edge Lord, he could've easily blown up everyone here'

If not for Lark's impressive poker face, he would've been sweating buckets simply due to the terrifying pressure that William naturally exuded without even doing anything.

But after saying that Lark smiled, the fact that he was still safe and sound was enough of a confirmation that Edge Lord at least didn't have malicious intention.

While William's unnatural strength scared him, it also served as reassurance, as that strength was on his side.

"I have a good feeling about this mission."

A statement that, if heard by the people who went inside the golem dungeon, would make them beat up Lark for jinxing a mission that was supposed to be easy.

**

AN;