Chapter 179 Disruptions

Shaman managed to sneak back into bed without Elysia noticing and took a moment to think about how to deal with the situation.

'Once we clear the dungeon and we meet with the elf king and queen, we could spend a little time sorting this out.' Shaman wanted to get their mission in Elfhiem done as soon as possible and hit tier 7.

'It may take us a few weeks to get the exp needed, seeing as the dark elves at the start are rather simple tier 6 with the guards being tier 7.' Shaman used her [inspect] skill on the dark elves, which gave her an idea of the different tiers they can expect to encounter in the dungeon.

'The outside is the beginning, inside is where all the tier 7's are and I assume there is a deeper level for the tier 8 dark elves.' Assuming that there was more to the castle, it would be quite a long dungeon to clear.

'Hmm this is going to take longer than just a day.' Realising the length of the dungeon and them being a lower level, they may spend a couple weeks grinding.

'If that's the case, I will try to see if there are a couple days where I try to get Elysia and Clara closer.' Shaman wanted to take advantage of the breaks they will get to act out the idea she had with Kiruya and hopefully there will be some more progress.

'Now let's just get some sleep, I can talk about it with Kiruya later.' Shaman, pushing the thoughts away, got herself comfortable and fell asleep.

***

<Elf royal palace>

"Your majesty Raiu, they have started to infiltrate the dungeon. They are currently tier 6 so it will most likely take them a month at most to get here." A hooded elf kneeled before the elf king who was looking out a window at a sort of entrance behind which the palace resides.

"Hmm that should give me enough time to prepare Ren. We could even send him out at the end of the dungeon as a little test." Pushing up a pair of glasses, he formulated a plan on how to welcome their new guests.

"Do you still want me to watch over them?" The hooded Elf was requesting more orders as he found this to be rather relaxing from his usual work.

"Hmm, keep observing them, but no need to report to me, just make sure they do not cause any trouble until they arrive and I will contact you if I want a report." Raiu threw behind him a piece of paper and the hooded elf held out his hands.

"Understood." The elf was about to leave, but Raiu put up his hand to stop him.

"Make sure that they don't encounter Elanor, she mustn't return back to the palace, not until she has learnt her place." Raiu had an annoyed look remembering the female elf that silver bumped into.

The face of the hooded elf went pale as he recalled the boy talking about meeting an elf with that same name.

"Y-your majesty I'm afraid the young boy accidentally made contact with her." He spoke hesitantly, soon after feeling a sudden pressure fall on his shoulders and dropping him to the ground.

"Damn it, at least it was the only young boy. Whatever you do, make sure she doesn't meet with the white fox." Raiu relaxed, allowing the hooded elf to get up from the ground.

"U-understood, it seems like she only briefly helped the boy, but that's all, so I should be able to keep her away." The hooded elf quickly exited the room, glad that he wasn't punished.

Once the hooded elf left, Raiu opened a holographic screen, which appeared in a flash of green light. On the screen was Elanor, working at the bar.

"At least she is trying, maybe she will be able to return finally." Closing the screen, he sat in a chair and opened up a green system menu.

'As her father I should have been less harsh, but grandpa wouldn't let me and now I have to play as the cold dad, what a pain.' Raiu sighed as he was forced to kick out his own daughter because of his grandpa, the previous ruler of Elfhiem.

'Hopefully the guard fails and they do meet. Maybe I could interfere a little, seeing as gramp's power is weakening and he shouldn't be able to hear the messages I send to the guard.' Now that the previous ruler was nearing the end of his life, his power withered as well, giving Raiu more freedom. As such, he considered changing the mission objective of the guard monitoring Elanor.

'Once he is dead, that self imposed curse will finally be gone.' Raiu clicked something on the screen and vanished on the spot.

***

<Morning>

Woken up by the shining sun, Shaman slowly opened her eyes and was greeted to the usual scene of being smothered.

Slowly rising out of bed, she patted Elysia, waking her up as well.

"Morning Shaman~." Sitting up, she wrapped her arms around Shaman, hugging her.

"Morning Eli~ ready to kill some dark elves?"

"Mmm murder." Being half asleep, Elysia wasn't sure what she was saying, but it was still amusing.

"Pfft, cute." Shaman giggled and quickly got out of bed, Changing into her usual outfit. Elysia followed suit and once they were both ready, they walked out of their room.

Clara was already up and Silver just got out of his room, but there was no Kiruya to be seen.

"Is Kiruya still in her room?" Shaman looked over to her room, trying to see if she could hear anything.

"Oh, she already went ahead. We are going to have breakfast together." Clara saw Kiruya leave and was told where to go once everyone was up.

"I see, well let's go then."

*

After eating breakfast, they headed straight for the dungeon. However, along the way a woman called them out.

"Is that you?" Elanor was walking home from her job, having just finished her night shift, and spotted SIlver walking with a white haired fox girl.

Silver and Shaman both turned their heads to see who called them out, but once they turned they saw a woman get dragged away.

"Elanor?" Silver recognised the voice and became worried as it would seem the woman is getting abducted.

"Was that the lady that helped you?" Shaman was sceptical, but seeing someone get abducted so quietly and without anyone nearby, must mean whoever is doing it is strong.

"Y-yes I think it was, we should go see." Silver wanted to help and although it may not be her, still seeing something like that and not acting on it felt wrong.

"Alright, before we head to the dungeon, there is something we need to take care of, as I'm sure you've heard." Shaman turned to everyone who was listening and they all nodded their heads.

"I'll go ahead, they shouldn't be able to outrun me." Kiruya didn't mind helping, as it will help build a positive relationship with the elves, which was always welcome. Running off, Kiruya climbed up onto the roof quickly and tried her best to track down the abductor with her nose.

Shaman and the rest all began to run down the alley. Luckily, thanks to it being early morning, not many elves were out and about, making it rather quiet.

*

<10 minutes later>

Kiruya peaked over the side of the roof and pointed in the direction in which she found the abductor.

Going where Kiruya directed, the sound of a muffled woman echoed out, instantly getting the attention of everyone.

Walking around the corner, they saw the same woman and a hooded elf who was seemingly trying to knock her out.

Shaman quickly inspected the 2 elves and saw that one was indeed Elanor, but the other was a tier 8. This caused Shaman to back away as this was a fight she didn't think she could win even, but when she looked up she saw Kiruya already pouncing on the hooded elf.

Pulling out her blades, she threw them at the elf at high speeds. However, before they even landed, he vanished from the spot. Appearing above Kiruya he went to hit her in the back, but Elysia was already preparing an arrow.

Firing the arrow at high speeds, Elysia was able to prevent the attack from the hooded elf.

Falling back, the hooded elf stood on the roof and looked down at the group.

"Tch." Knowing he just failed his mission, he decided not to go up against the 5 people he is meant to oversee.

'I'll have to report right away.' Deciding to just report back right away, he once again vanished from the spot, leaving them alone in the alley with Elanor.

Kiruya sat on the ground heavily breathing, as she was quite terrified that she would have been severely injured, seeing as she was unable to react at all.

"You okay?" Clara went to Kiruya's side to make sure she was okay while Shaman went to Elanor.

"Elanor?" Shaman sat Elanor up against the wall and she slowly opened her eyes. Seeing the fox girl she saw before, she remembered the name Silver told her.

"Shaman?"