It was at the end of a long afternoon for Alice. She had not much done but still felt quite tired. She sighed as she looked around, the sun was already setting and she still needed to eat something. Ophelia was walking in front of her, maybe that was the reason why she felt that everything was going so slow, she really had to take baby steps to not walk past Ophelia and leave her behind. She thought about all the decisions she would have to make and rather sooner than later but there were many more things that she would have to think about and talk about. Since her arrival in Era, there were more moments of regaining her memory for very small things than ever before. And it all came through Knights. If she would have believed in the Illumin and the divine, she would have thought it to be a sign. Now she wasn't so sure, she only knew she planned to join but there were small problems occuring that made her wonder if she wouldn't be corrupt from the start. She had been a Phantom Lord member after all, damn why was this so difficult?

Finally she lifted up Ophelia and held her in her arms as she simply walked to a vendor to order a sandwich and a soda before she would just sit at a bench and eat. She wasn't even halfway her sandwich when some dragon like creature went to sit next to her on the bench and smply talk to Ophelia. She could only look with surprised big eyes and nog completely understand the concept of the creature, until he spoke to her, "I heard about you Baskerville. Care to do a job?"

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It had been the latter half of the day with a few strips of white fluff pinned around the sun. The young afroed mage matched his grey sweater with a pair of black slim jeans and grey boots. A bit much for such a nice spring opener of a day, however his sense of fashion was of more importance than being fully comfortable. Still, he managed to find comfort in what he wore as his mental state was satisfied.

The gas mage strolled around Era aimlessly with an occupied mind. His day so far hasn't consisted of much other than visiting the Rune Knights Headquarters. Just the regular exercising session, checking up on the pages and making sure there were no internal jobs that were on red alert. He had a good image to keep as he was one of the youngest mages to ever rank up, leaving behind a batch of older pages. Most of them knew of his name even if they were of another batch or of the next generation. He knew damn well that we was aiming for heaps higher than where he stood. There was much more history to be written.

With both hands tucked inside the tight pockets of his jeans, Ace moved around thinking if he wanted to take the rest of the day off or just occupy himself with a request. It was a nice day after all. With his pure bold white insignia marked on his left ear lobe, it was in contrast with his dark chocolatey skin, barely covered by the tiny black earring he wore.

The fresh breeze calmly passed over his face as his ear perked up upon catching the mumbling of a foreign tone. The "man's" voice was very scruffy as it broke with every other word he spoke. Ace had no intentions of listening in on people's conversations, but as long as there was all this trouble going on around Era, it was part of his duty to keep an ear out for details. Thankfully, the twelve year old didn't need much of a disguise as mostly everyone he talked to thought nothing more of him. The only give away was his white insignia. He slowed down a bit as he continued listening to the man, "It's about a wolf who killed his owner... He's terrorizing the people of Era at night". He was relieved for a second yet he peeked over his shoulder to see who the dragon-specie was talking to. Ace had layed eyes on a beautiful orange haired girl and was starting to wonder if the man really had a job for her or if he was up to no good. "Here, what's this about a job i'm hearing?" The twelve year old boldly stated as he stood about two meters from the bench. With the girl on his left and the dragon-like specie on the right, he made it easy for her to see the insignia. Unplanned... But it somehow seemed to work as she would've asked for the Knight's help if she needed it. The young gas mage hadn't known if the girl was a mage or not, but she seemed to carry a pet of some sort which probably possessed magical powers.

It was kind of unbelievable what was happening and yet Alice should get used to being a mage, she had seen weird things in the same context as a talking dragon like thing.. It was kind of mean to call it that but she was not sure how to handle it, especially not if you compared it Ophelia, who had never said a word, who knew sort of like how to sing and everything but wasn't the same as really, really talking. Which had made her a sort of unable to speak at the first moment. One second you are sort of enjoying your dinner, which is just a sandwich but at least it was food and the next second this was happening and that wasn't even the worst. He knew her name. More people apparently started to know her name and she wasn't entirely sure if that made her happy at all. As long as it was in a good way, as in not her Phantom Lord time, she was okay with that but this question if she cared to do a job, made her unsure. "Depends on what the job is about." She said and she instructed herself to look as casual as possible and take another and with that the last bite of her sandwich so it was out of her hands, in case she needed her hands at all.

The creature answered her question with ease, it was not something dark. It was actually preventing casualties. She frowned not entirely sure what it was and if it was the truth, that's when her thoughts were interupted and she looked at the person that had spoken, it was a boy. She couldn't really guess his age, she wasn't really good at that but as Yu appeared to be thirteen, he looked to be around the same age. At first she had wanted to smile at him and just wave it away that she was fine until she noticed, how could she have missed it, the insignia. She recognized it because she had seen it before, the Rune Knight insignia.

She gave him a small smile but was still unsure, he wasn't a knight if he wouldn't have some powers. "Sounds like fun." she turned back to Daragast and asked for the information that she needed, it would not take too long before the wolf would be active and they could even go and look for it, since it would probably linger around, wandering, finding a new victim. He would await them here and she stood up and lifted up Ophelia and put her in the little blue backpack. "Era is quite a town, I'm glad you are helping. I'm Alice, nice to meet you." she said as she stood up and turned to the boy.

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The gas mage listened to what the dragon specie had to say and nodded as he looked back at the girl to see her own opinion on the matter. She had accepted the job and introduced herself to Ace as Alice. She sounded glad to be working with someone on this mission and so was Ace. This will certainly take his mind off things and help him make a decent amount of jewels while at it.

"I'm Ace, Ace Brookes. There's more than one 'Ace' in the Knights but you'll definitely be able to recognize me"

The gas mage boldly spoke out. He kept a serious face all the way through talking to the girl. It was just the norm for the twelve year old boy. His eyebrows frowned at most of the people he's met although his heart meant good and his intentions were pure. His eyes darted off the girl and onto the sky as he started walking next to her. The beautiful colors of the sunset were now starting to show on the blank canvas that was the blue sky. A beautiful mixture of purple, pink, and orange tainted the horizon as the sun made it's way behind the mountains of Era. "Do you think it'll take long?" he asked with his eyes still admiring the sunset. The young rune knight was referring to the wolf with his question.

He awaited the girl's reply before throwing another question at her.

"So you're a mage i'm assuming?"

And yes, he almost knew what was going through the girl's head by now. How can such a young boy be with the knights and sound much older than his peers. That was just Ace for you. He wasn't much like the rest of his age group. Gifted yet cursed in a way. It wasn't always a blessing to be more intelligent than your company, not to mention the mass amount of people who look down on kids trying to prove a point. A lot of people had these questions for Ace yet held back. For some reason though, this girl gave a warm presence to the young mage. He felt comfortable around her, yet still held his ground as not to tell too much. Once again, all the problems around Era are nothing to be taken lightly. Guard up at all times.

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Alice stood up and put the little Cleffa in her blue backpack and slung it softly over her shoulders and made sure the little companion was ready for the new adventure that they were going to have today. She smiled at Ace as he introduced himself, "Well since I never met the other Ace, I think I will recognize you first anyway." She made sure she got everything and she took off to find the wolf. Era was actually too big for this, how would they find a wolf. She would rather find it before he made more victims but for that they would probably have to hurry. She as just looking left and right into allies but not very specific, Daragast should have given some more details instead of just a wolf with a chain around his neck.

Ace spoke to her and she looked at him shortly before looking at the sunset as well, "Oh, well that totally depends on when we find it. If we can't, it might take a little longer." Than I hoped, she had wanted to add but she didn't. She was also still a bit confused about how that guy had known her name, was it the sponsorship? Would that already work when she wasn't a knight? She should try and find Konstantin but she had absolutely no idea where apart from here in Era. It felt like how she arrived her, trying to find Selena and only guess she would be here because she was a Knight. This meant she didn't get a step closer to understanding the world as she had hoped.

She was again brought out of daydreaming, which was a good thing since it wasn't a very positive vibe in her mind, "Oh yes, yes I am. I use Requip magic. Not sure if you can really consider it a magic as all I do is store items in an invisible dimensional pocket and get them out by using one spell and fight with them, but yea it's a magic." She frowned at herself for explaining it so weird and looked with an apologetic face at Ace, "I assume you use magic since you are a Knight." For a second she wanted to tell him she thought about joining the knights and that it had not happened for unknown reasons but she refused, maybe later. She didn't know this boy that well so.. She heard something and she stopped walking and turned to look at a street to her right, she thought she had heard someone trying to get away from something, saying no, no, no, please go away. But it had been soft so she was unsure, "Did you hear that?" She asked.

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"I've only read of requip mages. It's meant to be a really powerful and versatile type of magic if wielded correctly. It's nice to meet one in person"

It was indeed his first time meeting a requip mage. He's learned loads about them and other types of magic through the vast majority of books he's read, however he was yet to meet their users in person.  With a tad bit of curiosity, the gas mage was glad he took this mission with the girl. He had a feeling it was going to be a breeze. The girl interrupted his train of thought by assuming he was a mage as well. "Mmm actually, not all knights are mages. Only a select few are and they're generally the ones that rank up quicker than the rest. But yeah your assumption is in place, the only way a kid like me can make it out is by magic" he spoke out as he occasionally looked at the orange haired girl. He hadn't realized that he didn't give the girl a definitive answer of what his magic was. He was too engrossed in explaining the ranks to her. Anyways, who was he to tell that she didn't already know all this?

His ear twitched as he heard someone crying out. "I thought it was just me" he said quietly in reply to the girl's question. They had both heard a call of distress from a nearby alleyway towards their right. Ace started by walking towards the noise silently just signaling Alice to come along. The closer he got the less noise there was. They couldn't rely much on their vision either as the sun fully dipped behind the soaring mountains of Era only leaving behind a dull gleam at the horizon.

After a couple steps of investigating, the gas mage spotted the wolf standing still, facing a fence with a man running on the other side. The young rune knight caught the scene with the corner of his eye. It seems like he just barely got away from the wolf. Dirty grey with patches of darker fur randomly scattered on the wolf's skin. His chain rattled as he turned around to face the two. Drool dripped down from his fangs as his full red glowing eyes fiercely pointed at them. It was literally getting darker by the minute so if they wanted to take the wolf out, it would be best to start acting quick. "Alice... Don't mo..." Just before Ace could finish his sentence, the wolf sprinted towards the afroed boy. The dark skinned boy had not much time to react except for attempting to deflect his attack. With a quick sweep of his right leg he attempted to kick the wolf's head to prevent him from biting Ace or Alice. Luckily enough, Ace's right foot connected with the wolf's face in time shooting him off to the left leaving a distance of a meter and a half between them and the four legged creature. Ace didn't expect that to do much damage to the wolf, but he hoped that Alice was in place to take her attack. This would give Ace a chance to regain balance and target it with a spell of his own in attempt of ending the havoc that this wolf has caused throughout Era.

She couldn't help but feel a little bit flattered about the things Ace said about Requip magic, she technically learned it from a book, "Well I would like to meet someone as well. Just to see how they use it." Reminded her that some guy named Aleksandr used it and that she would have to meet him at some point.

She learned something new everyday about the Knights, well alright not every day but many days a week. She nodded as she looked at Ace from time to time to simply show him that she was listening. He seemed like a very smart guy especially or maybe just for his age. She had met Yu but that didn't count as she wasn't actually thirteen she simply looked that way. Ace didn't give off that vibe that Yu had done since the beginning, as if it was experience and not simple knowledge. Ace seemed to just be very smart, which was also a very good quality and she first thought that it might be because of the vast amount of knowledge that he was a Knight, not per se his magic. However he hadn't said what his magic was and before she could ask his magic, she heard the pleading for help. Or well she would see it as help. She followed Ace to come along even though she would have done that without the signals. She shook her head with a smile, damn she was smiling way too much since she left Phantom Lord.

She was standing at the corner and looked around it to see the wolf, a man that was running. The whole situation was easily spotted and she held a hand in front of her mouth. That guy might have escaped but he wasn't the only one as there was a body. But before she could do or say something to Ace, he said something and the wolf came to them. Ace was in front of her and she took a few more steps back to change into her armour and holding on to the Straight Spear.

Ophelia was still on her back in the backpack and she wouldn't put her down with this beast, it seemed to move as fast as she was able to. As the beast was kicked away one and a half meter, she simply crossed that distance quickly and slammed her spear to the right side of the beasts his body, she would have to pierce it since it had to die but she hesitated for a few seconds as she watched it fall again and growl. She shook her head and held her spear again to push the point through his right shoulder blade, she would have to do this for the sake of justice and safety and the idea of being able to join the Rune Knights.

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Requip Stuff:

Wearing: Lancer Gear + Straight Spear
Mana: 950/1025

The bright gleam of the moon made it's way past the balls of fluff hanging off the sky. It shone of a pure bright light which helped in aiding their vision through the pitch black darkness that was eating at the city from the far opposite side of where the sun had set. The wolf laid there on the rough ground with with a spear pointing inches away from his chain down his shoulder blades. The orange haired girl had almost completely finished the chained wolf off. What raw power came from such a sweet and gentle girl. Ace knew well not to judge a book by it's cover but he couldn't help but get surprised by the girl's speed and might.

By the time she changed into her armor and attacked the wolf, the gas mage had regained his balance and planned to target the wolf as a final blow. "This should take him out" he thought to himself as he whipped his right hand. The elegant hand gesture formed and mixed a toxic layer of chlorine gas with the lower level of gases next to his feet. The gas would then quickly obey Ace's commands in rushing towards the wolf while staying low. With a simple flick of the rune knight's wrist, the gas erupted upwards forming a dense layer of corrosive gas that exploded onto the wolf. It all happened in a flash with the sequence of hand gestures happening quick. The yellowish green gas of toxins would engulf the poor mutt knocking him back with the force of the current while also finding it's way through his wounds and exposed skin leaving severe burns.

In a moment's notice the gas dispersed and the wolf was to be seen on the ground again, toppled over and helpless. "This should put a lot of people out of their troubles" he murmured under his breath. The young mage knew he couldn't have done it this easily without the perfected moves of the orange haired girl. She was indeed way stronger than she looked.

"I'd say our job here is done..." he boldly state with a straight face unaffected by the joy of completing the mission quickly. Once again, the young dark skinned boy felt comfortable around the girl. She gave off a friendly vibe that he was unable to explain, and for some reason he wanted to tell her more about the knights in hopes of recruiting her. However, he held back. He wasn't one to give his trust easily and he stuck to his grounds and rules. Still, he tried to befriend the newly met girl. Maybe someday he was to see her in the knights because of their future friendship? Maybe not because of him even. "Gas magic..." he said in reply to her question from earlier, "I learned mine from a book as well actually". He figured why not talk to her and get to know her as they made their way to get the reward.

"Let's go get our reward... We deserve it after such a long day eh?"

He walked side by side to the girl while getting to know her better as they got their individual rewards and parted ways in hopes of reuniting some day.

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Even though it didn't cost much of her strength, it was just something that happened, she was sort of out of breath, she had to remind herself that it was with good reason that she did it and she had seen a possible dead body. She was sure there were others now in case he or she needed aid. Ace used his magic and she looked at it with curiousity and waited for the wolf to die. He had it coming and she snapped her fingers and the spear disappeared as well as her armour turning back into her normal casual outfit. She looked over her shoulder to see Ophelia doing fine and she shook her head with a smile.

She turned her gaze at Ace as he said that their job was done, she nodded. It wasn't really honerable if you asked her but a job was a job none the less. "It looked very interesting." She replied when he told her about his magic and she couldn't help but grin as he told her he got it from a book as well, "Books are very useful things." With an amused smile she nodded at the suggestion to get their reward and she walked back the same road as they came to find Daragast again.

She talked to Ace during the walk to get to know him a little but she didn't ask the questions that she had asked Konstantin. She told Daragast about what happened and got the reward for herself and said goodbye to Ace. They would perhaps meet again some day. She didn't tell him about her plans of joining the Rune Knights, he will figure that out at some point. She would have to find the last very good reason as why to join and if she would be able to handle every obstacle that would be there, that were there in her mind. She walked back to the inn, there was enough to think about again.

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