The Master of Cards Chapter 79: Mission

"Well, I expect you to survive the death mission." Qianyu said with a smile.

"We just fought twice, once against each other and one together. Why are you so confident about my prospects?" Alex asked curiously.

"Gut Instinct." Qianyu replied.

"So I do a mission for Negima... how does that help you?" Alex asked.

"That is just the beginning. I want you to gain the trust of controllers in Negima and feed us intel about their big plan. Bonus for wrecking their plan if it has negative consequences without bringing any suspicions onto yourself." Qianyu said.

"The pay better be good." Alex sighed.

"I heard you are looking for a lot of dark attribute special items? We can provide you with a satisfying amount." Qianyu said with a raised eye

"Word travels fast. Dark attribute is a good money maker in the market, but it isn't useful to me personally. Add in some points and the opportunity to purchase from inventory." Alex said calmly, but inside he was swearing. Word that he was looking for dark attribute special items spread quite quickly. He thought it was probably Negima Corporation who sold the fact that he purchased a lot of Night Grass from them.

Qianyu thought for a moment and eventually accepted. "You drive a hard bargain. Hope you the best on the mission."

When Alex entered the Card Dimension, he headed straight away to Negima's headquarters.

Unsurprisingly, the guards let him in amd soon he was taken to a conference room where five people were looking at him.

"Mr. Alex, you've worked for us before." One man said.

"It was a mission posted for Adventure House, but yes." Alex nodded.

"Very well, I heard from the Army Alliance that you are a good free agent. We would like to hire you for an upcoming mission." The man continued to speak.

Alex nodded. "I will consider the mission depending on the pay."

"You can rest assured that the pay will be satisfactory. Well above the market rate." The man said while examining Alex's reaction.

Alex continued to remain blank and agreed to the mission.

The mission was planned in a week. During that week, Alex spent some time hunting monsters, but then he realized something shocking. Ever since all three of his base cards had formed a rank 1 card, the vortex stopped absorbing any more fragments.

"Looks like I have to target rank 2 beasts from now on, for the rank 2 fragments." Alex sighed.

Thus he spent the week doing random hunting missions for the Adventure House and farming points.

A week later, he gathered along with a group of nine others. Only three of the members of the group were from the Negima organization. Alex was assigned to follow the three and protect them as they completed their own assigned mission.

The group were pretty quiet and spent three days trekking around the western lands from the Highland shelter. On the fourth day, they arrived at a lake. This lake was actually marked on the map and was somewhat famous. This was because there was a huge ice cube sitting at the center of the lake. It was a literal cube as if it had been carved.

Attempts had been made to change the shape of the ice, but it was extremely hard and nothing seemed to damage it. Added to that, it made the water extremely cold. Although the lake was fluid, anything that touched the lake's water would freeze up solid. That is why the lake was pretty much lifeless.

When the group reached the lake, one of the three members of Negima took out a single use card. When Alex and the other hires saw that card, their eyes were filled with shock.

"How can a rank 5 card appear in the first card dimension?" One of the hires asked in shock.

The three from Negima looked at the person with cool eyes, warning not to ask information they don't need to be told.

Alex quietly observed as the person who took out the card activated it, but he was shocked. If one person activated the card...

The person who activated it exploded into a mist of blood and died and the others looked on in horror. The card activated and a ray of blue light hit the ice cube, causing it to melt very slowly.

The moment the ice cube began melting hundreds of humanoid monsters made of ice that seemed like ghosts crawled out of the lake, trying to attack their group.

A battle immediately began, where the hires were protecting the two remaining members of the Negima Corporation from the ice ghosts.

Alex was using his stick to instantly destroy the ghosts around him.

[You killed x22 Primitive Ice Ghosts. You obtained x3 Fragment Rank 1 Ice Strike]

Alex was helpless, because these rank 1 fragments were absolutely useless for him. He just blindly kept killing the monsters as did others. But one of the hires was suddenly pounced on by five ice ghosts which tore his body apart.

The sight brought chills to everyone, but they continued killing the ghosts with even more desperation. At that moment, the second person from Negima took out the same card as the first one and with a creepy smile, he activated it.

Alex noticed their complete lack of fear from death, which creeped him out. But at the last moment when he saw the man explode, he noticed a mixture of emotions in the man's eyes. Alex could swear that he saw surprise, shock, fear and rage.

However, the second card also activated and another ray of red light hit the ice cube and it melted even more. It was no longer a cube now, but looked like a malformed ice shell within which Alex could see hints of a door.

Seeing the door, Alex was surprised and a little bit of fear crept into his heart, because the door looked quite similar to the magnificent engravings that had appeared on the door of the chamber housing that dreadful drop of blood.

Chapter end