Chapter 11

The tension between the Tower Master and the mage Mustang was rising, but eventually, the Tower Master took a step back. "Congratulations Mage Mustang on your ascension to a tier 2 Frost Mage!" She replied with faux politeness.

Mustang smiled back and the tension dissipated away like the wind. "I thank the Tower Master for her good graces. This friend of mine here requires an item be appraised. I wonder if the Master can help with the matter?"

The Tower Master struggled to hide her disdain when she noticed the person being referenced, Vergil, was a commoner. But unwilling to create a conflict with a rising younger mage, she could only accept the request. "Certainly, friend of the mage, follow me to my office. I will appraise the item."

Vergil followed the frustrated Tower Master to her office which was decorated with complex mechanical instruments and astrolabes. A telescope rose out of the dome at the tower's top affixed in the direction of a star. "You can take out your item to be appraised." The Tower Master did not hide her disgust of the commoner now that Mustang was not around. Vergil couldn't care less about the old hag's behavior. He procured the Jade box the tailor had given him. The sudden summoning from his storage shocked the Tower Master who trembled while mumbling about spatial magic.

Eventually, he pulled herself out of her reverie and opened the Jade box to reveal the mysterious fabric that constantly shifted between solid and liquid states. Seeing the mysterious object, the mage herself wasn't able to figure out what she was looking at, but as an appraiser that wasn't her job. She walked to her library and picked out a large grimoire, opening it from the end and began reciting a complicated prose in the Magic Language. As the words began tumbling out of her mouth, a dangerous energy began to circulate in the air before falling on the fabric. When the tower master completed her incantation, the power of star beams shone over the fabric and it began to glow brightly before finally returning back to normal.

"The appraisal has been completed." The Tower Master placidly announced. Vergil noticed that she appeared extraordinarily exhausted, and from experience, could judge that the item was most probably not an ordinary one. His eyes fell onto the fabric as a system prompt appeared within his vision announcing the completion of the appraisal quest and the description of the item appeared in front of him.

[Ariadne's Silk Silver] (Fabric)

[Grade - Mythical]

The appraisal took such a long time, yet it only revealed the name and the grade of the object. Ariadne - this was a name Vergil hadn't heard of before even in his past life, but a mythical item? He knew very well that mythical items were so absurdly rare and game breaking that their very appearance in the game had created a load of controversy when the players had discovered information about them.

Vergil thanked the Tower Master, who was too exhausted to care, and left the tower. He quickly rushed to the tailor's store where the man was calmly stitching an outfit to sell later. When he saw Vergil appear, his eyes glittered with hope. He quickly stopped his work and ushered Vergil into the store, before turning the closed sign up. "Did you manage to get the item appraised?" He eagerly asked. Vergil nodded and took out the decorated box and placed it on the table.

The tailor excitedly opened it and touched the fabric in awe. "You really succeeded! Haha! Does anyone else know about this item?" He asked Vergil, who shook his head to indicate the negative. "Good! Then you can go die!" The tailor suddenly whispered cruelly as his body began to grow large tufts of hair and his fingers turned into gigantic claws. The NPC turned from green to red, the tailor was actually a level 5 werewolf!

The tailor's shop, which was a safe zone suddenly became a blocked domain and a quest marker sprang up in Vergil's vision asking him to defeat the Werewolf to continue the quest. Being killed in this situation would void the quest completely. Vergil cursed inwardly - it was no wonder he never heard anything major about such a quest in his past life! The lucky individual who managed to grasp the quest was probably slaughtered. Not to mention how incredibly hard getting into a mage tower was at early levels without intel, which level 2 newbie could deal with a level 5 werewolf?

In Stellar Ambitions, Werewolves had powerful regeneration abilities and triple the HP of bosses at the same level. The shocking part to Vergil was that such a vicious character was masquerading as an NPC in the beginner town! As the werewolf's claws swiped towards Vergil's neck, he swiftly fell backwards and rolled over the table to push himself backwards onto a wardrobe of clothes. The entirety of the shop was now a chaotic mess as the monster continued to jump at extraordinary speed and claw at Vergil who continued dodging desperately.

The area inside the shop was too constrained and despite his incredible maneuvering, stemming primarily from his lifetime's experience of the game's mechanics, the werewolf managed to claw out Vergil's shoulder swiping off three fourths of his HP and causing a burst of pain and a splattering of blood. Vergil had the horrible urge to scream, but he grit his teeth and maintained his presence of mind, using the momentum of the slash to dodge by rolling and flinging the axe towards the werewolf.

A monster of this level had very good reflexes and immediately used its claws to deflect the axe. The collision of the claws with the axe head caused a terrible metallic clang before the axe swung its way to a wall and embedded itself through sheer force. Vergil struggled to get up at another corner of the shop, cursing his luck. If he had known that this quest would take such a twist, he would've brought some healing potions along with him and slowly wear this beast down. He realized that a protracted battle against this monster was a lost cause because of the healing factor that werewolves had. Thinking about the value of the mythical item, Vergil grit his teeth and got up, planning to make a desperate gamble.