"It's alright! No worries! You were the one who killed the Imoogi anyway." Noah said without a trace of disappointment when Luke explained to him how the materials were used by Holdok while making his gauntlets.
"I won't take the reward from the next missions until you get a thousand gold coins!" Luke said.
"There's no need! I would have felt bad taking those coins even if you had offered me. Instead I'm glad that Holdok used them in your gauntlets!" Noah said with a smile.
"Speaking of the gauntlets…show me how they look!" Noah asked excitedly.
With a smirk on his face, Luke lifted his arms up showing two thick black bracelets made up of metal scales in his wrists.
"Emerge!" Luke spoke out and channeled prana as two gauntlets morphed out of the bracelets, covering his whole arm.
He didn't need to smear blood on them since they were the first generation blood armaments which had his blood in the mana veins of the metal.
"Fuck! Holdok made you blood armaments?" Noah yelled out in shock.
"He didn't mean to, but there was no choice left, so he had to!" Luke couldn't stop himself from smiling, excitedly showing the gauntlets to Noah.
"Haha! You bastard! Holdok almost charged you nothing for it! Do you think you can get such a weapon in just two thousand gold coins?"
"You Moron! I would have given you all my coins if you would have needed them for the gauntlets!" Noah scolded Luke, but he was happy and excited for his friend, which he couldn't hide as his lips kept twitching for a smile.
A smile spread on Luke's face, seeing such care and love from his friend.
"Alright! Stop shouting at me! Let's get a mission and test my babies in the field!" Luke held Noah's shoulder and pushed him forward, both moving up the stairs of the adventurers guild.
"I'll still pay you the thousand coins though!"
"Just do whatever you want, you bastard!" Noah was annoyed by Luke and didn't want to argue anymore.
Both of them walked inside and moved towards the mission board, receiving a lot of stares filled with jealousy and hostility.
Most of the veteran adventurers couldn't believe that a team of D and E rank adventurers, who had just joined the guild were able to get the flower when they had years of experience.
They ignored the stares completely and moved ahead without sparing them a glance.
"When will Shane be back?" Luke asked.
"He said he'll need a week for the repairs and also, he'll make something new! And since he's not here, Ruby won't come too!"
"So we'll have to wait a week more to register our team!"
Just when they were about to reach the board, Mia came running towards them and stood in front of them.
Seeing her appear suddenly, both of them were surprised and got curious.
"The g-guildmaster has…c-called for you two!" She gasped for breath as she said.
"Us? Is he gonna reward us more or what?" Noah asked jokingly.
"No! It's for a mission! He has asked me to bring you two specifically!"
Luke and Noah looked at each other. Surprise and curiosity reflecting from each other's faces.
"Lead the way then!" Luke said.
Mia moved ahead as they followed her behind. They climbed two stairs to reach the second floor where the guildmaster's room was.
She stopped in front of the door and lightly knocked three times.
"Come in!" Aldos's voice came from inside.
Mia opened the door and held it in place, asking Luke and Noah to go inside. They nodded and moved inside the room as she closed the door behind when they were inside and went away.
Luke and Noah last came to the guildmaster's office when they came to receive the reward for the noon bloom. They had exited with smiles on their faces as they had received a whopping sixteen thousand gold coins, after the guild cutting their share.
"Come! Take a seat here boys!" Aldos asked them to sit at the long sofa beside him and he was sitting at the single one in the middle.
While moving to take their seat, Luke and Noah's eyes fell on a young man sitting towards the right of the guildmaster.
He had a thin and frail body, long black hair, dark bags under his eyes and wearing a black robe. They guessed he was probably a wizard, but the question that arose in their minds was that, why was this man here.
"These two are the rising young heroes of our guild, Luke and Noah!" Aldos introduced them to the young man with a wide smile on his face.
"They are ones who found the noon bloom which even the veteran adventurers were unable to do so!" Luke and Noah nodded as they were being introduced.
"And this is the famous wizard of the Institute of Wizarding, Ames the genius!"
"You overpraise me guildmaster!" Ames said embarrassedly.
Luke and Noah's eyes opened wide in shock.
The name they just heard was famous throughout the empire as Ames was the greatest genius of the century, being an orphan, he rose to heights on his own and became the youngest fourth circle wizard, reaching it at the age of eighteen, and rumor was that he is about to reach the fifth circle soon.
"Not at all! I was even quite humble with my words in your introduction! Haha!"
"Well, lets get to the topic then." Aldos turned towards Luke and Noah and started clearing their curiosity as he spoke.
"Mr. Ames is here for some research he'll be doing in the outer zone of the forest of corruption and he'll be requiring someone to guard him during that time!"
"He asked me to recommend someone trustworthy! So, the fist name that came to my mind was our young rising heroes of the guild…you two!" He said with a smile.
"I can vouch for them Mr. Ames! They are strong enough to defeat an Imoogi, and will be perfect to protect you in the forest while you do your research."
Ames was surprised when he heard that they had defeated an Imoogi, which needed fourth to fifth circle mages to kill, and from the mana releasing from them they looked to be in the third circle at most.
"Amazing! To defeat an Imoogi at third circle, when even I would struggle to defeat it even though I'm a fifth circle!" Ames said in praise.
Luke and Noah were shocked again as Ames himself confirmed to be in the fifth circle. Even Roger only achieved this level in his thirties.
"I just reached the third circle after the fight with the Imoogi!" Noah said.
"Me too!" Luke said after Noah.
Ames and Aldos went silent, they were shocked to their core. What they had done was near impossible, never heard of.
"I'm speechless!" Ames chuckled. "I'm ashamed to ask this of such great mages, but I would be honored if you help me in the forest!" Ames said in solemn voice.
"Obviously, I'll pay you a hundred gold coins for a day!"
"A-and how many days would you be doing research in the forest?" Luke asked with anticipation and surprise on his face, as the amount he was offering was quite mouth watering.
"There is no fixed deadline, it would depend on how the research goes, but definitely more than a week I guess."
Noah and Luke went into thought as they started calculating. This was the perfect opportunity to earn thousands of gold coins without much of an effort.
"Done! We'll do it!" Noah hurriedly accepted with a thumbs up, not letting Luke speak anything.
'Look at this greedy bastard!' Luke smirked.