Joe-"So are we... good?"
Julius-"I think so"
Elise-"That guy punched my stomach for no reason and then just left. I can't just let that go"
Adam-"He flung me into the wall. But more importantly he cut my sword"
Joe-"Are you going to be able to fix that?"
Adam-"Julius, can you fix my sword"
Julius-"I'm still waiting for my mana to recharge"
Adam-"Will you be able to though?"
Julius-"I assume so, though with it being a magical item I don't know"
Voice-"You will he able to fix it as long as you have all of the pieces"
Julius-"Do you have the pieces?"
Adam-"I think so. I'll have to grab the them"
Adam walks off to find the pieces of his sword and Elise follows him.
Elise-"You doing okay?"
Adam-"Yeah?"
Elise-"I know that sword is important to you"
Adam-"A lot has happened these past couple days. My sword breaking sucks but it's not at the top of my list. Plus Julius should hopefully be able to fix it"
Elise-"I remember I was jealous when dad gave you that sword"
Adam-"I'm the one with blade based skills"
Elise-"I could have had a flaming sword"
Adam-"I wonder how Mom and Dad are doing right now"
Elise-"Better than us probably"
Adam-"Yeah"
Meanwhile Joe is talking to Marigold and Damion.
Joe-"So that guy was your prince?"
Marigold-"Yeah, he was the royal prince of the kingdom I used to live in when I was young. Before Lucious"
Damion-"Why did you leave?"
Marigold-"I don't really know the specifics, I remember my parents saying the politics had gotten bad. My father said that the Draconic royal family had lost most of their influence. The high priest began to have the most control in the country"
Joe-"How does a royal family loose their influence"
Marigold-"A lot of the noble families started standing in support of high priest. My family was just a small group of farmers but he used up the money he saved to get us out of the country when he realized I had Holly magic. He was worried the high priest would do something to me"
Julius-"With a prince that strong I'm surprised the royal family was able to loose any influence"
Marigold-"The prince's strength is an anomaly, me and him are some of the only beast folk to ever obtain holy magic. And he also even obtained an ascended skill"
Julius-"What are the odds of a prince being born with holy magic and having enough potential to get an ascended skill?"
Marigold-"Astronomically low, that's why there have only been a few S ranks in history"
Julius-"How many S ranks are there actually?"
Joe-"I forget the exact number, it's between 10 and 15 I think"
Julius-"So has there been only a couple hundred S ranks in history?"
Joe-"No, these S ranks are the only S ranks there have ever been"
Julius-"Wait? So all the S ranks are recent?"
Adam-"Nope"
Adam and Elise walk back with Adam having collected all three pieces of his sword.
Elise-"Someone S rank level only appears around once a century. Meaning most of the S ranks are hundreds of years old"
Adam-"Atlas himself is over a thousand years old"
Julius-"So are the S ranks all long living species like elves?"
Elise-"The vast majority of elves don't live all the way to a thousand. They say all of the S ranks are granted immortality. It's why they've lived so long and why they've never fallen in battle before"
Joe-"I was going to say that"
Julius-"I see, so Atlas must have some way of granting immortality to people"
Marigold-"Immortality is a big bargaining tip. That combined with his immense strength is possibly what allowed him to get to his pristine position. My parents said the only reason that the draconic royal family is still technically in charge is because of the guild. As you saw the royal prince is one of the guild's S ranks. He is actually the second youngest"
Julius-"The second youngest? But you said S ranks only appear once a century and he looked a lot less than a hundred years old"
Adam-"It's only around a century not exact. But we weren't expecting any new S ranks for a while"
Joe-"Then all of the sudden this elf kid showed up out of nowhere and shot up the ranks to the third place. Surpassing legendary warriors who have been around for hundreds of years"
Elise-"He's actually even considered an upper S rank"
Julius-"What's an upper S rank?"
Joe-"So Atlas created the ranking system. And he based it off of the Demon lord and his army. E and D ranks are weaker than any of the demon king's soldiers. C to B are the range of his foot soldiers. Low A to upper A is the range of his captions. S rank is his generals. And upper S rank is the demon lord himself. There are only three upper S ranks"
Julius-"So there is Atlas and that kid, who is the second place?"
Elise-"She's a genie, apparently Atlas had her grant some wishes and now she stays here to protect the world"
Damion-"We got off topic"
Julius-"Right yeah sorry, Marigold you were saying that Archimedes is the prince"
Marigold-"Yeah and now that we have this whole group. I kind of want to get stronger now"
Elise-"You want to be an adventurer?"
Marigold-"Well I've been thinking, there are plenty of bad people like Lucious out there. And I want to help stop them. And I know I need to be stronger to do that"
Damion-"What does that have to do with the dragon guy?"
Marigold-"Well, I know that when he was training to become that strong, he went to the same place the A and S ranks go to train. I know if we go there we could become much stronger too"
Julius-"Where is that?"
Elise-"Oh I know where that is"
Adam-"The kaiju archipelago"
End of chapter 96