Drake looked up at the soft green dome, preventing his targets from escaping. His gaze fell on the two red threads before he took his first step to follow them.

Each one went off in a different direction. It didn't matter because there were only two remaining.

The first of the two targets was only twenty feet away. He was in an alley, sitting in a circle of crystals as he was chanting in a language that they didn't know.

Mike shot out an electric blade, hitting an invisible barrier that surrounded the gargoyle. Drake smiled, tapping his staff, creating a soft green barrier around the gargoyle's invisible barrier.

Silently, he told Renn and Ruby to keep watch on the chanting gargoyle.

Leaving it to his familiars. They followed the second red thread.

Weaving through alleyways and cobbled roads, they found the last one hiding behind a building.

Chad pulled his bow, releasing a powerful energy arrow. It slammed into the gargoyle, who hadn't even noticed them. The blow killed it instantly, causing it to burst into a cloud of light particles.

{A member of your cohort has killed a gargoyle 49/50}

His red thread faded, leaving only one.

Drake, Mike, and Chad made their way back to Renn and Ruby. The gargoyle was still chanting. Sweat beaded on its forehead as it chanted desperately.

The gargoyle looked up at Drake, its face turning pale.

"What about below his barrier?" Mike asked. "Can you make it into a sphere to go completely around him?"

Understanding Mike's concerns. Drake tapped his staff on the ground, expanding his own barrier to encompass the gargoyle inside a glowing sphere. It lifted the gargoyle into the air, tearing out part of the ground.

"That's new," Chad observed, seeing the floating gargoyle in a bubble of soft green light.

The gargoyle was sitting on the flat side of a half-sphere of dirt that had pulled out of the ground while Drake's barrier formed around the gargoyle, successfully trapping it.

"Is there any chance that you can break his barrier?" Mike asked.

Drake studied the trapped gargoyle. It was a smaller gargoyle than most, wearing dirty robes and holding a staff with a red jewel that glistened at the top of it.

"I don't get it. He's trapped, yet he's still chanting," Mike complained.

"Hey… Shaman… You're the only one left," Drake called to the gargoyle.

Clearly, the gargoyle could hear because he chanted faster.

"Shit, I have to think of something…" Drake complained aloud. An idea came to him, but he wasn't sure it would work.

Tearing a page out of one of his books, in which he stored items, he lowered his own barrier, then he swept his hand, sweeping the gargoyle and its barrier inside the parchment.

{Quest Complete: You have killed a gargoyle 50/50)

{Quest reward: Gold Storage Book}

Drake smiled before using his fire spell to destroy the parchment. It quickly turned to ash and floated in the wind.

As soon as it was ash, a gleaming gold book lay on the ground in front of him. Drake picked it up and opened the cover.

"Our quest is complete," Drake informed them as he studied the book.

The cover was solid gold. It was much heavier than he would have expected. Inside, there were one hundred pages made from parchment with golden veins. The pages were empty except for one.

Mike and Chad watched Drake with interest. "What's the gold book?" Chad asked, beating Mike to the punch, before he could ask.

Drake, still staring at the item inside the golden book, spoke without looking up. "It's a storage book made of gold. The pages are parchment with gold veining. I'm not sure what to say about the item inside. My gut is telling me not to pull it out until after we finish all our ascension quests. Every time I go to take it out, my gut hurts."

"What is it?" Mike asked, peering over Drake's shoulder to see. "It looks like a chest of some sort. It looks like it's made of gold. I wonder what's inside it."

Drake shrugged and closed the book. After storing it inside his cuff, he headed toward the town square.

Mike and Chad flanked him, while Renn and Ruby transformed into their smaller beast forms and leaped onto Drake's shoulder.

When they got to the town square, the people were still rushing around. The mayor was standing against a wall, looking around him in panic.

"I wonder what that's all about," Mike stated, looking at the mayor.

Drake turned toward the mayor. With purpose, he headed straight for him.

The mayor noticed Drake heading straight for him, causing the mayor to attempt to back away. His back hit the building he was standing in front of. There was nowhere he could go. The man's face paled as he watched Drake and his cohort approach.

"What's going on?" Drake asked. "We've already dealt with all the gargoyles, yet your people are still acting like there is danger here. What's going on?"

Chad suddenly laughed. "I bet I know what's wrong. They think we're going to retaliate for what they tried to do to us last time."

Drake activated his system to detect lies. "Is that what's going on with everyone running around like that?"

The man shook his head. "N…N…No," he choked out.

{A lie has been detected}

Drake couldn't help but chuckle. "Is there anything else going on other than your and your people being afraid we're going to retaliate?"

The man's eyes widened, then stammered, "N…N…No."

This time, the system remained silent.

"We have no plans to retaliate," Drake told the mayor. "You don't have to worry. Just remember. If you attack us, we will retaliate with force. If not, then all is fine. There is a reason we didn't kill the three traitors. They didn't outright attack us, but they were trying hard to get us to go into the trap set by the gargoyles, even after they knew we were on to them. They left us very little choice."

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