I Know the Secret to Surpass Level 100

When Elliot returned to the guild, a pouting Midnight greeted him. "Hey."

"Hey, Midnight," he greeted back. "Why the long face?"

"It's that time of the month," Midnight sighed. "This month, I have to go to a remote area so that I wouldn't damage anything."

"But doesn't the King backed off with him wanting to take the guild?" Elliot thought.dddd

"Yeah, but then I just couldn't let our Casters repair the guild every month," Midnight flattened his lips and sighed again. "It's hard work."

"Not really." Ethan walked over and shrugged. "I do most of the work and I can testify that it's not that hard. Not unless you go all out like the Spring season."

Elliot tilted his head, "There's a season thing?"

"He tends to lose more control when Spring comes," Ethan sighed. "Even Frederick would have a hard time restraining him then."

"Let's go, big bro." Sun came over with Luck and Frederick. "Let's go before it gets dark."

It's only noon though. Elliot thought but did not try to talk out loud.

The four of them bid farewell to the other guild members and went to the cottage where they would take Midnight.

Elliot walked to their table where his other friends were.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Have you told Isabelle yet?" Ed asked him, referring to the cancelation of the quest they took.

"About that…" Elliot trailed off and told them about Viper. Elliot could see that the kid has potential. He could easily keep up with what he taught him. "The kid is a fast learner and he has huge potential."

"Okay," Lance nodded. "Let's finish this quest and maybe grind levels. You all have to be at least in Legendary so we could go on a Conquest with just our party."

"We can do that?" Elliot asked.

"You can do anything with the power of a waiver," Lance grinned.

"Of course, there has to be a waiver," Connor sighed. "I think by the sheer amount of quests Lance took, Glitch must have a room full of waiver contracts now. Or at least a cabinet filled with just his name."

"I do," Glitch butted in, sitting in between Ed and Hope. "He discovered the power of waivers four years ago, and he has been using them ever since. And I'm not legally allowed to throw them since their files related to the guild. It's bothersome, really."

Glitch could only dread after realizing that now he has even more waivers to keep. Now he has to keep five times more since Elliot, Connor, Ed, and Hope has to sign different waivers. "Your party will make me grow old faster."

Not long after, Francoise called Elliot saying his items were finished. He was walking to the old man's shop when he saw a little girl crying beside the road.

"Hey, are you okay?" Elliot asked.

The little girl sobbed and wiped her eyes with the long sleeve of her Lolita dress. "My mommy. I lost my mommy."

"Your mommy?" Elliot asked to which the girl nodded. "What does she look like."

"She's tall, and she's an Adventurer. They call her the Strongest Female Adventurer of Alorde and–"

"Katie!" Alice came running towards them. She saw Elliot and a sigh of relief escaped her lips. "Good gracious she saw you."

"Oh, I just got here," Elliot scratched his nape, trying his best not to get flustered. He still wasn't used to talking to women, especially one on Alice's level.

"Mommy!" Katie cried and came running to Alice.

She's a mother? Elliot thought.

"Oh, no," Alice defended. "I'm just taking care of her and somehow she calls me mommy."

Alice was chuckling until she realized her mistake.

"All this time you could read my thoughts?!" Elliot gasped, grimacing at all the thoughts that ran inside his head the time he saw Alice in Isabelle's portal.

"N-No," Alice stuttered. "I mean, yeah I could but I just blocked the thoughts with my magic."

Elliot formed an 'o' with his mouth. "You can do that?"

"Yes. Reading thoughts are called as Faint Abilities, a rare ability that one acquires after becoming an Adventurer," Alice explained. "Faint Abilities are one of a kind. Approximately one per major city. But it's nothing major or game changing, that's why it's called 'faint'. It's basically just an extra skill."

"But don't worry, I could resonate my ability with my magic to prevent me from reading everyone's thoughts. Because that would be awkward. I just activated my Faint to find Katie and now that she's here, I could put the block on again."

Elliot slowly nodded, internalizing the new information. "Wait, so how would anyone know that they have a Faint Ability?"

Alice thought for a moment. "Faint Abilities would label themselves as 'Passive/Non-affinity', but then again, no Faint has ever been actually anything major like firing a catastrophic meteor down a city."

Their conversation ended with Elliot now learning about Faint Abilities. He knew he didn't have one so he just shrugged the thoughts away for now. Maybe he would know someone in the future that could make use of the information.

Just when Elliot had entered Francoise's shop, a notification popped up.

'Quest [ Mettelium For Ed ] available.'

"Nice," Elliot chuckled and swiped the notification, realizing he also swiped a previous one.

[ A Poison for Viper

Reward: Map for the Bartonella Mansion Treasure

// Viper wants to become strong. You have the power to help him. Help Viper. ]

"Ah, the Manual, always so helpful," Elliot mocked and rolled his eyes. "You could help me by answering my questions, you know. Why won't you just answer my question?"

"Why are you talking by yourself in my doorway?" Francoise retorted. "Come in or else you'll make everyone think I'm serving people who are insane in the membrane."

"Your customers all have problems in our brains though," Elliot snorted. "You seem to be picky with your costumers and you usually pick the ones with terrible problems."

Francoise sighed, "Just take your equipment for now."

Elliot grinned and did what was he was told to do. He got out of the shop and saw Florencia by the door.

"Hey," he greeted. "What are you doing here?"

Florencia was hesitant. She was rubbing her fingers together and looked down, face flushed and red.

"Big brother Elliot, I-I…"

"Florencia you idiot!" A boy about her age came running towards her. "Why did you use your magic on that man? He was a Squad Captain of the Royal Knights, didn't you know that?"

"I didn't," Florencia cried. "He looked okay so I approached him. When he took the bait, I just dabbled a small magic on him just so he would find me cute. But then he had a terrifyingly high magic resistance!"

"He's a Captain!" The other boy emphasized. "A. Captain!"

"How am I supposed to know that?" Florencia cried. "He looked dumb so I just went straight for him. Turns out I was very wrong."

"Young girl," a deep male voice spoke from behind the younger boy. "How could you try to Trance an Officer of the Royal Palace?!"

Even Elliot flinched at the power the man displayed. It was, from a regular person's perspective, one of the most terrifying aura they ever felt.

"I'm sorry sir," Florencia bowed. "I'm so sorry, sir."

The officer sighed, his mood drastically changed from angry to sadness after seeing the expression on the girl's face.

"You need to be careful, kid," the Officer said sofly. "There are evil in this world that would bite you if you're not careful."

"D-Don't bite me then," Florencia cried and hid behind Elliot. "Or else Mr. Elliot would kick your butt!"

"What? Why me?" Elliot gasped as he felt himself being pushed forward by Florencia. "Hey, I'm not–"

The officer laughed, once again, his mood changed. "You little brat. I tried going easy on you and actually want to settle things but you decided to ruin my mood."

Elliot raised his arms beside him to protect the little girl behind him.

"So, you have decided that I wouldn't go easy on you," the guard grinned. "Let's fight. But don't worry kid, everything is just practice. Just take a friendly match with me, but don't cry when you lose, alright?" The officer boasted. "If you win, I'd let your little friend go, but if you don't, she'll have to come with me to the dungeons."

Elliot gulped in shock and fear. "How would I know that you're not planning on something like frame me for battling you?"

"You have a sharp mind, kid," the officer grinned. "Let's have a battle now."

"In the middle of the–"

Elliot wasn't able to finish when a large ax swung for him. His instincts made him leap in the air and brandish his sword."

"You're good. But don't worry," the officer grinned. "You have some potential, and that speed you have is incredible! But can you avoid this?"

The officer rotated his weapon and swiped it up, creating a slash that was blocked by a familiar white sword. Lance pushed the ax down with his sword and slammed it on the ground.

The guard was about to protest but he abruptly stopped after realizing that he was talking to the prince of their kingdom.

"Y-Your majesty," the guard lowered his weapon and bowed.

Lance tsked and rolled his eyes. "Why are you still in the arms, Babel?"