John Newman mage for hire.

John took a deep breath, feeling Gamer's spirit stopping him from panicking.

"I was, for reasons that bear little interest to this assembly, in need of something held by a girl belonging to another organization. The way to obtain it included a test of valor, which would be familiar to a knightly order such as yours. Due to previous misunderstanding and some unearned resentment I ended up facing an Outsider spawn as my opponent for this fight. They had captured it and were waiting to properly dispose of it. " he explained, being careful not to lie but avoiding giving any details about who was involved or what he wanted.

"You what? This can't be! How could you survive an Outsider Spawn when a few zombies had you cornered?" asked Moira in total shock. Her personal interest in him made her panic when she learned he almost died once again.

"Well the zombies were easy to kill one by one, there were just too many of them. This was a duel and I was able to avoid most of its attacks long enough to wear it down bit by bit." he replied.

"Wait, you actually killed it?" asked the old man, whose name was Cornelius Stolt according to the text above his head, a lvl 9 Sage . That he was only lvl9 at his ages was strange, either non combattant were leveling slowly or he wasn't really good at what he did.

"Of course, if I hadn't we wouldn't be having this conversation. I would have liked to be prepared for it and know its weaknesses from the start though. A few incendiary weapons would have been handy." he told him.

"He is telling the truth, even if he hides many things. I feel so much different things on him, it is hard to figure what they are." said Lorelei, Varnik of her name, a lvl 12 Seer. She was really pretty, even if he couldn't see her eyes. He wondered if she was blind or if it was a ritual thing. In any case he would have a place for her in his kingdom should she find herself out of a job.

"Full of surprises, just as my daughter warned me. The details are of little importance. I heard that you found this in the Academy." said Lord Brighton, throwing the spying glyph on the table.

"Yes, it was stuck to a wall with probably some sort of camouflage spell on it. I only noticed it by looking closely because I knew someone was watching me and no one was there." explained John.

"And you gave it to us, good, good." replied Moira's dad.

"Traded it to you. For items I am yet to receive. And we also have to talk about the compensation for tonight's call. I know you don't deal with many mages, but my free time is scarce and as such valuable." pointed John.

"Yes, yes, of course. I was informed that you were very insistent on such matters. By only dealing with our own or the enemy we easily forget that some are driven by something else than the Cause." he replied.

"Oh, but I'm also driven by a cause. It just happen to be mine, not yours. We have an agreement, but I am independent from your order. You can just hire me for jobs, not dictate my priorities." John really wanted to make this clear in their first interaction. He didn't want to be seen as their lapdog, especially with the number of people who who target him for that.

Lord Brighton pointed at Cornelius. The old Sage pushed a silver tray covered in various items of small size.

"These things have been deemed safe enough to be put back into circulation. They will be your payment for the glyph, having alerted us to such a threat and your intervention tonight. I believe this will be satisfactory." said the old man with a wide smile. (revealing a great number of golden teeth.) John looked quickly at the tray, there were about a dozen trinkets. Even those without direct utility would give him materials or could be traded.

"It will on the condition that I do not risk my life tonight. I have a mission that requires me not to get hurt too much until tomorrow morning and had enough trouble not failing it already. What do you need from me?" he exposed.

"No fight, or danger. We are more interested in some of your ancillary powers. We have learned what we could from the glyph and it wasn't much. You told my daughter that you could disassemble items to raw components. Knowing what this item and a few others were made from would give us new lead on tracking down their creators. We would like you to use this gift on some items that we have gathered and help us identify the elements that compose them." explained Lord Brighton.

"I can't reassemble the items once scrapped, so be sure you don't need it afterwards. Oh and I have no containment if one component is dangerous. Should we proceed?" he asked them.

Cornelius provided a large wood panel covered in runes, circles and pentagrams. He carefully put the glyph in the center of one of them and gave him the thumbs up sign.

John, wanting to be taken seriously focused longly on the item before just using Craft to scrap it. Instead of the glyph there were now a circular bone piece, a small vial of red liquid and a pile of glittery golden dust.

"Incredible! So many possibilities with a skill like that. Can you do this on anything?" asked the curious Sage.

"I don't think it works on anything living. But I never tried on something on which it didn't work yet. I hadn't the occasion to use it on anything really powerful, I haven't any that I could do without. From what I see those are a fragment of a Beholder skull, blood of a Aether Fish and some Endless Dust. " he said calmly, trying to look professional.

"Very well, let's try it on a few other things then." replied Lord Brighton.

John was brought other items and scrapped them. For some Cornelius and even lord Brighton were curious or amazed at what was used to craft them, for some other ones they showed no interest. John quickly figured out that they were using him mostly to destroy these items that they had already studied, he was acting as a magic recycling contractor for a group worried on the energetic impact of their activities.

Finally they brought him a staff mounted with a skull, what he found once scrapping it was troubling.

"For this one we have a human skull, a female one if it matters, three units of Stygian fellwood, two Soulstones and... Five units of Outsider ichor!" he declared. He had been surprised to see the same small lead vials that he gathered after his fight with the Outsider spawn.

"Intriguing, where did the slayer from the Northern Wind Clan found the spawn that you fought?" Asked Lorelei, who knew a lot more than what John revealed.

"The host was a Black Velvet enforcer, She told me that they tried to use it in a fight against the 33 Scions, but it backfired and it slaughtered them instead. I don't know much about these organizations." he admitted.

"Black Velvet is a bunch of goons, no way they know how to summon an outsider. It has Cabal written all over it. And the way it developed I'd bet they were actually working for the Scions." remarked Moira, everyone around the table seemed to agree.

"I know that Black Velvet is a sort of mob organization that deals with human trafficking and some other stuff, but what are these Scions you are talking about?" asked John, tired of being the only one out of the loop.

"It started with a man, no one knows his name, he only went by The Perfect. Tall, bald, of unknown origin, maybe of mixed heritage from Asia and Europe. He was a very power pyromancer , using demonic fire and devastating unarmed strikes, a master of many ancient martial arts. He had the totality of his body covered in runes and occult signs, tattooed upon his skin, as many pacts to call upon Demons he bound to himself. One day he wanted to become immortal by creating spare bodies in which his soul would reside if he ever died. The ritual didn't work as expected, rather than staying asleep until his soul was released at the time of his ****, every body was too powerful and began draining his soul. He did end with 32 spare body to use as an insurance, but with 33 iterations of himself running around, each convinced to be the original one. Their motivations are difficult to decipher, some of them want to kill the others to remain the only one, other to create a ritual to reunify their soul, others just to rule the world...." started Cornelius, before being interrupted by Lord Brighton.

"So the Cabal is playing with Outsiders, then won't ever stop, do they have no limits? This ichor is dangerous, we don't know how the first Outsiders were called here but since the easiest way to do it is to use their blood. We can't have any of it in circulation. " he announced.

"About that... I care about the safety of the universe and all of this, but I received this by defeating the Spawn. If I can't sell it, I will lose a lot of money. I would be willing to exchange it with you so that you dispose of it safely. You wouldn't happen to have a few spare elemental essences laying around, would you? " said John, lining on the table the small lead vials he had in his inventory.

"This much, from just a Spawn! Lorelei, is it all some pure ichor? Worrying! You would put greed above the possibility of the destruction of the universe, Mister Newman?" he asked. John figured out that Lorelei probably knew most of it, so he decided to come out clean, at least about the parts that did not make him look like a pervert.

"Actually, it would be King Newman the first. I came into possession of an hearthstone, similar to the one you used for creating your training grounds and my aim is to turn it into a small kingdom. These essences if you give them to me will be used on it to add elements to the place. The way I see it, these things are valuable and even if I don't end selling them they could be a good bargaining chip sometimes to save my life or recover something I care about. Too dangerous to simply put on auction, but I would like to get something from them, especially considering how dangerous and difficult it was to obtain them. " he declared.

"A kingdom ?" asked Moira.

"I didn't want to be inviting anyone so soon, the place is still a bit shabby. And the castle could use more furniture. But using essences and binding them to the place, I can improve it greatly, or I can do it with money. So I would need either of these things. If you want I can just put them on auction and let you win them that way, but I figured I would be nicer with some allies and let you have first call on them. " he replied.

"You drive a hard bargain, King Newman. You know we can't take them from you by **** and keep our honor as long as you don't use them. And I would guess that you are sane enough to not use them, or you would already be a drooling mess after meeting with the Spawn. How many essences are we talking about? " Lord Brighton began to bargain.

"There are six vials and each I'd wager would cost more than an elemental essence. Supply and demands, you see. But I would be fair, let's say four, a nice amount of gold and the Endless Dust we got from the glyph earlier, that way we leave each others happy with what each of us wanted. " proposed John.

"If this is a friend price, I wouldn't like to deal with you as an enemy. The amount of the stuff is of low importance, what you have would most likely be enough for one or two summonings of a really weak entity, it would reach huge sums. The Dust you want by itself is already really powerful, the entities that made it have disappeared eons ago. I would say one and the Dust or three without it, max. " replied Moira's father.

"Yeah, there isn't a lot of it, but there isn't much on the market either, people will go into bidding wars for it, I could end up with millions. Three, with the Dust and a slightly larger amount of gold or some cash." he retorted.

"Still, it is..." started Lord Brighton. John interrupted him before he could finish.

"Just ask Lorelei if I will accept anything less." he proposed. Everyone turned to look at the young Seer, curious about her answer.

"My Lord, he is right. He will accept this price or walk away with it. There isn't more room for negotiations." she admitted, John did not know if she was seeing the future or just confirming the veracity of his word, but he was glad that she confirmed it.

"Moira will lead you to the vault and give you your due. Will sixty of those be enough?" he replied, throwing one of the golden rose coins on the table. John picked it up mid air with Move and checked it closely like he never saw one.

He had already a lot of money, he didn't need more cash and the gold would count towards his quest to get to a million.

"It will do perfectly. It's a pleasure doing business with you. Don't hesitate to contact me again if you have any further need for this service." replied John, while he gathered the various trinkets on the tray and followed Moira out.