The Ascension of the Celestial Priest

20; The Accusations.

"You are late!" a soft feminine voice entered his ears as a hooded figure with a green cloak swiftly materialized in front that it almost started him. The figure had an emerald cape with an exquisite bow Lukas had ever seen slung of her shoulders. In a fluid motion the hooded figure stepped aside as she continued.

"Go and report at the desk. We were all waiting for you "and with that Lukas seemed to feel like holes boring through his skull. Hiding his nervousness he only nodded before he took quick strides to the reception desk. The Hall was large enough to fill a lot of adventures and yet somehow it gave spacious space for people to mingle and breathe. Lukas's eyes flitted around before setting on the conspicuous couple as the likely candidates of the people he is supposed to be questing with.

He arrived to the front desk, reported his name and then waited. For what seemed a second later a well dressed young man walked out, from one of the adjoining doors, gave a quick glance at how far they placed themselves from each other before he cleared his throat.

"Now that all of us seem to be here we can finally begin with the debriefing, all of the adventurer’s apprentices follow me" he tooted and without waiting he turned around, walked through another door and further down the halls without a pause. Keeping an eye around Lukas wasn't surprised when the fiery girl and the full clad warrior followed briskly behind. The hooded figure came next, walking behind Lukas in such a graceful manner that she seemed to barely step the ground. But then behind them he literally saw a guy apparently formed from shadows follow behind them much to his surprise. He was in tight fitting leather armor, with a red scarf flitting around his neck. With a young face and very stable eyes, he gave Lukas a smirk the moment he noticed his gaze upon him.

They all walked in silence before they were sent to a simple secluded room with a host of chairs and a small podium well placed at the front. The elegantly dressed young man entered, stood at the raised platform and then gestured for them to sit. Lukas and the fiery mage were the ones to do so while the warrior stood behind her like some kind of protector. The hooded figure took a chair far behind while the red- necked figure from before leaned on the wall his hands playing with a gleaming dark knife. It could barely be seen on its hand almost as if it was shifting between being material and immaterial between his fingers. And at the moment Lukas was hit with a surreal feeling of being in some kind of virtual reality game were all of the essential classes needed for a classic dungeon run were available. The full clad warrior was obviously a tank, while the red girl was a fire mage. If it wasn't by the dress then the amber staff in her hands was an obvious tell. The hooded figure was some kind of an archer with the exotic green bow slung over her visage while the red necked guy over there was a rogue just by looking. His role was obviously a priest, donned in a white robe and a gleaming Starlight Staff in his hands.

"Welcome to the Adventure's association. I am Representative Malten and I will act as your Caretaker, Guardian and your Adjudicator to see if all of you are fully qualified of being a fully ranked adventurer or not." He continued "I should point it out that this mission is a third and the last test for all of you and while some have produced excellent results so far, some were met with unfortunate circumstances". His eyes glanced at Lukas for a split second.

"This Last mission was issued for all of you as a matter of convenience. Essentially you can already be counted as adventures but this mission was provided as a matter of filling up the quota placed the Adventures Guild and of course to determine your overall ranking in general. Now that that's out of the way I will debrief your mission post, introduce everyone to everyone and then questions can follow after."

He then took the short papers beside himself and with a hand he flitted to everyone's hands elegantly.

"Your 3rd Qualifying mission will take place here in the Golden City and by far it will only be the easiest. Your job will be to clear The Catacombs beneath the City, and from this paper you will see a map of the respective underground chambers. It isn't that large and the only occupants you will meet will be some underground rats that have deigned to dwell there. I will send you all on a carriage to your entry point and I hope you all cooperate well. The higher the results of your Mission the higher grading and extra rewards are given."

He then took a single paper and then placed into the Dark board. "Each one of will be rewarded 100 gold coins upon completion and then some extra 10% for a job really well done. And an extra bonus if a person in your team gets high praise for his or her performance. This was issued as a way to raise camaraderie and companionship to everyone whose performance would be particularly useful in battle.

Seeing as the rest of his audience was being very response and attentive, he raised his eyes and then proceeded to relay with the proceedings.

"Now let's begin with introductions , Geoffrey, he will be the Knight for this mission, followed by Mira, the reputable Fire Mage , Renesme the Magick Archer , Rexsi the Shadow Rogue and finally Lukas, the Priest of Light; each one of you chosen as an integral part of this mission."

He looked at each and one of them as he named them and then finally waited "any one with further enquiries before the journey begins?"

It was all silent for while and Lukas with a calm face looked around at his new teammates before he suddenly found himself the center of attention in way he never expected.

"Why would we have to perform this mission with a useless priest?" the Rogue, Rexsi spoke in a very still voice that seemed to be grating Lukas's ears as he slightly frowned, his eyes settling on the provocative rogue.

"What?" he half shrugged, his whole body releasing a threatening stance. "I'm not lying am I? I looked up every one of you…at least I tried." His eyes passing over the hooded figure "but what came up was your incompetence in the last mission you did. I heard you nearly died wasn't it?"

Now it was everyone's turn to respond. Geoff slightly frowned while Mira had an interested look on her face, her eyes switching back and forth between them. The hooded figure was still though Lukas could almost see the subtle reaction when her head turned. He sighed. In a way he couldn't blame their reactions, since having priest in most times was a very convenient matter but if they were particularly incompetent they could hold down the whole team in turn. They were enough stories of arrogant priests who led their whole team to an unexpected demise but as they were much respected in the continent and they have saved countless lives more often than not, no one rarely raise a voice against them.

Until now!

Lukas collected himself, showing none of his frustration inside. The original host might have been incompetent but he wouldn't allow just any rag tag soul to diminish his uneventful death. Not that they needed to learn what really happened, but it was simple enough for him to stand up for himself. He crossed his legs in a familiar pose of elegance and power, his staff nimbly floating beside his chair making a silent statement.

Mira clicked her tongue in appreciation, as if treating all that was happening as some kind of show.

"Well," Lukas began "If you bothered to dig for our information then that means you must have half of a brain to figure what had really happened on my last mission." His voice cool, unruffled.

Rexsi eyes' flickered, clearly not about to back down, "Your very incompetence was what stood out to me. You were so weak and useless in your last mission that you endangered the lives of your previous teammates and you yourself nearly died. Did I get that wrong?" His rough voice grated Lukas's ears even further.

"I would like to see where you got your information from." Lukas mused, insinuating something much deeper than their current argument. Rexsi was just about to lash back before Lukas cut him off as he raised his left hand while his right leaned on chair he was sitting on, bearing a full picture of an arrogant noble.

"First" his left hand raised one finger "I nearly died in the previous mission and I won't allow a fool belittle what really happened with some baseless accusations.2nd," a second finger was raised "If what had happened was really my fault, do you think I would still be sent a missive to be here and finish my grading process?"

The rest of the audience had no idea what they were talking about per se but the last point Lukas said made them realize that regardless of Lukas being weak or not , The Adventurer's Guild would have thoroughly investigated and if they deemed him innocent, then whatever Rexsi was spouting about was evidently groundless to begin with.

Rexsi hadn't expected for his accusations to be nipped in the bud so fast and flawlessly and thus he retaliated in the only way he knew how.

"We all know how much the Adventurer's Guild favors priests so much that they passed a huge blunder like this under rug…"

He didn't even get to finish his full words before a formless powerful pressure descended on them like a hurricane. It nearly knocked them out of their chairs catching them by surprise.

"Watch your words well, Young apprentice lest you find yourself expunged before you utter another sound." The words reverberated around the room, knocking them senseless, the once floating staff clattering to the floor.

Everyone's gaze stared at representative Malten in a new light. The formless pressure disappeared as fast as it had manifested leaving them ruffled and unsettled. Rexsi eyes were all for defiance but even they could tell he had a trace of fear in his face. Lukas was too fascinated by what had happened that he nearly forgot the feeling of danger he felt just a few seconds ago.

Seeing the new glances the young apprentices gave him he snorted as he continued.

"The incident was fully investigated and it was found he was innocent of it all despite his inadequacies." And a recipient of a carefully planned attack but he wasn't about say such a thing.

"Every member about to become an adventure are vetted out thoroughly to prevent such a thing from happening and it was our fault that we didn't crosscheck them carefully enough to realize their flaws"

The tense air slightly relaxed But Lukas still looked at the rogue, making a point to remember his visage. If they end up alone, trapped in the Catacombs who know what would happen. He gave him a through look before his eyes shifted somewhere else. If the present was anything to go buy, it was enough proof that whatever had happened in that forest was real and it was planned. And this jab was meant to discredit him as a victim.

He silently bristled in anger. He wasn't sure if the preparation he had done was enough for the upcoming challenge but he did know one thing. He must double his efforts if he ever hopes to stop history from repeating itself with him this time.