"You don't have to worry about that, we are not sending you alone, there will also be a transcended magic swordsman accompanying you, whose primary responsibility will be to clear the path for the party and protect you." Silent reaper said.
'Transcended magic swordsman, someone who has surpassed rank 12, must be one of the upper echelon leaders.' I deduced.
"Is it you?" Merlin asked.
"No, but you can rest assured, in his presence, the shadow empress won't be able to touch even a strand of your hair." Silent reaper replied.
'It is him.' I said to merlin because my ability to distinguish truth and lie was just triggered.
"And should i just take your word for it and risk my life, anyway visiting the dragon's lair could be tempting for any rune master but the risk of this mission is too high and it would only create problems for me in the future, I will have to decline your mission." Merlin declined but my ability confirmed that he was telling a lie and was interested in the mission.
'I think we can easily complete two more gold rank missions, there is no need to go to such a dangerous place with that crazy harlot.' I said to but Merlin smirked at my response.
'An opportunity like this won't appear very often, we will join the expedition regardless of whether our safety is guaranteed or not, I am just faking it so that I can make silent reaper agree to few of my conditions.' Merlin said.
"Won't you reconsider your decision, it is secret information but I think I can share it with you. In this mission one of the upper echelon member will accompany you and his first priority would be to ensure your safety." Silent reaper finally spoke the truth.
"Will that be you?" Merlin asked again.
"I can't tell you that, it could be me or someone else." Silent reaper said.
"Is that so, if my safety is guaranteed, I will think about it after hearing your full explanation." Merlin said.
"By the way how difficult is a mission pertaining to Platinum Rank and Crystal rank?" Merlin asked because the difficulty of the mission was not mentioned in the mission description.
"Currently there are only 19 people in whole genesis organization who have the Platinum rank membership, I cannot tell you the requirement to climb the Platinum tier unless you have become gold rank member for 1 year but these missions require you to kill one or multiple marquees ranked demons and the current era of marquees ranked demons are all mythical entities (Rank 12).
Regarding the difficulty of crystal ranked missions, know that even the upper echelon thinks twice before accepting such missions because its difficulty requires you to kill a demon duke or people of similar strength such as heroes and the leaders of resistance forces."
'So the mission we are embarking on is similar to killing a demon duke who can kill me with a flick of his finger, are sure merlin?' I asked merlin.
'Yes.' Merlin gave a short answer while silent reaper continued.
"But this mission does not require you to kill any duke or hero, it is an expedition where there is a genuine need of rune master like you, killing will be mostly done by other members while you will have to help them move forward, dragons are said to be the best species when it comes to runes and thus there are some matters which cannot be resolved by strength alone." Silent reaper gave us a satisfactory explanation but we knew things would never go as they had been planned.
"Where is this dagon lair situated?" Merlin asked the silent reaper.
The pending symbol of mission description changed to accepted and a six floor structure presented itself in front of us, the last floor was shrouded in black mist which meant it was an unexplored area while the rest of the five floor's structure became visible to me.
"The Dragon lair is situated in the southern continent but we don't know its exact location, we would be relocating you to our headquarter on the eastern continent where you can start working on your first rune forging mission and await for further detail."
"For now you can head to the intra-continental teleportation gate from where our agent will escort you to 'Vatican city' which is the capital city of the eastern continent, we will transport all airships and vehicles for rune forging there." Silent reaper informed.
"Also your rewards and the compensation we promised will be handed to you there." Silent reaper said.
"Very well." Merlin said and silent reaper disconnected the call.
'Now can you explain to me which benefit you were talking about? Which we will get inside the dragon's lair.' I asked merlin.
The merlin who was ready to use the precious teleportation scroll when faced with the demon empress was ready to accompany her on this expedition, it was true that we could run with the help of teleportation scroll whenever we want but what could be worth sacrificing our identity.
"It will be a long story. Let's first meet the slime demon, I will explain to you in detail about my motive once I have arranged my thoughts." Merlin said and we flew toward the location of the slime demon.
Actually the slime demon was already observing me from the moment I arrived in this territory to undertake my first mission but my sensory capabilities were not enough to detect his presence.
It wasn't until Merlin woke up and advised me to scan my surroundings with my draconic senses, I caught the trail of a detached organic entity which was keeping tabs on me (Slime).
Considering the precautions we have taken to avoid the eyes of powerful entities such as shadow empress, we concluded that it was someone from genesis side because based on our analysis, the person's soul force was lower than mine and he was a rank 12 entity.
And thus i was so confident while facing the marquees ranked demon because even if the marquees ranked demon was powerful, i was confident in running away from him but the slime demon exceeded my expectation.
The only thing I didn't like about him was his attitude but it wasn't like we would be meeting after he had successfully escorted me to genesis headquarter.
I thought he would be queered for making him wait outside the city wall but contrary to my expectation, his face had a bright smile with tears forming on the corner of his eyes as if he was witnessing his god descent from heaven with lightning wings flapping behind his back.
'I don't have a good feeling about this.' I heard Merlin's voice.
'Me too.' I replied.