Olivia was happy to have her mask covering her face, so she didn't have to use a fake smile.
Still, she had to use a friendly tone. "Ivan! It's been a long time."
Ivan smiled. "Yes, my friend. I came back as soon as I could when you didn't contact me as usual. I was so worried something bad happened to you."
Olivia had already thought of a story. Whether it would be good, she wasn't sure, but it would certainly be enough for someone like Ivan.
"I'm sorry about that. I was ambushed by the Red lady and Cornelius's groups in the forest. Despite having a hundred A-rank adventurers with me, we still lost the battle."Ivan made a worried expression as he walked towards Olivia. "Oh, that's sucks! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
He held out his hand towards Olivia, trying to hug her as they were longtime friends.
Olivia never liked physical contact, but when she saw male arms that did not belong to Lucien coming towards her, she almost panicked and quickly took a step back, avoiding Ivan's hug.
"I'm fine now. It was just hard to get back..."
Ivan did not find it strange that Olivia avoided his hug because she was always a strange and antisocial person.
He had always been looking for ways to strengthen their group, and now that he had managed to find the green crystal mine, he started thinking about other things, like finding someone to raise a family with.
And he couldn't think of another woman other than Olivia, his faithful partner. So he wanted to start showing her that he cared for her in ways, other than friendship.Ivan smiled at Olivia and went towards the wine tray, so he started filling two glasses with fragrant red wine. "What matters is that you are fine."
Olivia sat on a sofa while signaling Astrid to sit next to her.
She knew she should explain her story before Ivan asked, or she could look suspicious. "I don't really remember everything that happened. We had a smaller group than the ones that attacked us, but the fight was actually a stalemate for a while... then at some point, I was knocked out."
Ivan approached Olivia and gave her one of the wine glasses while drinking the other and ignoring Astrid. "Did you see who attacked you?"
Olivia understood that Ivan was trying to tell Astrid to leave without being rude, but she did not want to be alone with him, not because she feared him but to avoid any problems with Astrid.
Then she passed her wine glass to Astrid, forcing Ivan to bring another one for her. He was not happy, but he didn't want to irritate Olivia, so he went to get another glass of wine.
"No, I was knocked out before I could see who attacked me. Then I woke up in a prison cell in a cave." Olivia continued telling her fake story.
Ivan took the other glass of wine and passed it to Olivia. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't sit next to her.
Then he sat on the sofa in front of her and Astrid. "Have you been stuck in that cave all this time?"
Olivia took the glass, and so she lifted her mask a little, just enough to be able to drink the wine without revealing much of her face as she had always done.
Only Astrid had seen her face because Olivia wanted Astrid to completely trust her. Everyone in the Guild knew that a wound disfigured her face because that's what she told everyone. So no one insisted on seeing it, but Ivan didn't care about it, or rather, he thought so.
Olivia shook her head. "I was very weak and injured. They took my storage ring, so it took me a long time to recover enough to have the ability to escape."
"But I was still very hurt and would have died in the forest if Ravenous hadn't found me and helped me."
Ivan looked at Astrid, now with a more friendly expression. "Ravenous, right? I've heard a lot of negative things about you, but I'm infinitely grateful that you saved my partner."
Then he looked at Olivia. "I came back because I was very worried about you. But arriving here, I saw the chaos that the mercenaries have been causing... I would have joined the groups that have been looking for you, but I thought Black Hand was behind your disappearance, so I wanted to find him as fast as possible."
Olivia knew that Ivan was sincere. Although he wanted to lead the city, he was always loyal to their partnership. "Okay, Ivan. We don't need to talk about it anymore. Tell me about your journey."
Ivan shook his head. "I know that must have been pretty bad, and you might want to forget about that shit, but I won't forget about it until I punish everyone responsible. And I bet it was the mercenaries."
Then he took a green crystal from his storage ring and tossed it to Olivia. "Look at this."
Olivia took the fist-sized crystal. It glowed with emerald green light and radiated powerful energy. The energy felt good and pleasant.
She quickly noticed that the energy was somehow familiar. Even to a much lesser degree, the green energy reminded her of Lucien, more precisely his wonderful saliva.
It only took Olivia a few moments to connect the green crystal light to nature mana. She saw Ghilanna many times using nature energy on her arrows, and the light was also emerald green.
Also, she knew that Lucien has incredible Life mana, superior to the nature mana, so the energy of the crystal was inferior to Lucien's energy.
"It is amazing!!" Olivia exclaimed as she looked at the crystal.
She intended to pretend to be surprised. Still, in fact, she was really surprised, but not with the crystal being incredible, but the fact that even a treasure like this was far inferior compared to kisses from Lucien, her man.
Ivan was pleased to see Olivia's surprise. He expected her to like the crystal, but her excited reaction boosted his ego. Of course, that same ego would suffer a terrible blow if he knew that her excitement was for thinking of another man kissing her sweet lips.
"Yes, these crystals are true treasures. I spent eight months at sea, looking for the green light that the pirates and merchants kept talking about. In the end, the reward was more than I could have imagined."
Olivia tried to look curious. "And what exactly did you find?"
Ivan proudly smiled. "A cave! A fucking big cave full of these crystals. Do you know what that means? Do you realize how powerful we can become?"
Olivia could understand Ivan's excitement, but in her mind, she wanted to say. 'Do you know what it's like to be kissed by him every day?'
'Do you know what it's like to have pleasure and more pleasure until my legs are limp, and you can't even move, full of power and happiness?'
But of course, she wouldn't say that out loud. Olivia tried to stop thinking about Lucien and focus on the situation. "This is incredible. It changes everything."
Ivan nodded. "Exactly, it changes everything. Using the energy of these crystals, we can make the Guild much stronger. We can make Portgreen as powerful as the Light Empire and the Alliance."
"Yes, yes. Have you sent more people to the mine?" Olivia asked.
Ivan laughed. "That's why you are the brain of our partnership. You are always thinking ahead. Yes, I figured you would say something like that, and the first thing I did when I arrived was to send five ships over there."
Traveling in the gigantic eastern sea was not easy, but people could use magic tools to avoid getting lost.
In the case of the adventurers on the island of the crystal cave, they have a stone similar to the one Ivan uses to communicate with Olivia.
Using another kind of magic stone, the adventurers could know the direction of their comrades at sea and thus travel there.
Olivia can't help praising Ivan. "Well done. How many crystals do we currently have?"
Ivan made a disappointed expression. "I brought all of the crystals that we removed from the mine, but it was only enough for three hundred of our elites to improve from the B-rank to A-rank, and some to S-rank in addition to my team that now has SS-Rank adventurers."
"SS-rank? This is really amazing!" Olivia exclaimed.
He smiled. "Well, I had to give my team more benefits, after all, we worked hard to find the mine. But the next shipments will be divided between more adventurers."
Olivia nodded. "Yes, I understand. You could keep all the crystal, and it would still be understandable, after all, you have made this discovery that will help our people so much."
"It is already very kind of you to help 300 B-rank. That is very important for the Guild, because I lost almost 100 A-rank in that battle... "
Ivan smiled. "We are their leaders, so we have to help our people improve... Still, as leaders, we must always be strong to lead them, so..."
Then he took a bag of green crystals from his storage ring and placed it on the table in front of Olivia. "I couldn't give so many to my team and forget about my beloved partner."
Although the crystals are much less incredible than Lucien's demonic energy and life mana, Olivia knew how precious they are, so she couldn't help feeling bad for Ivan, giving his precious treasures to someone who will soon betray him.
She also felt bad about continuing to compare him to Lucien. But the fact that no one is as incredible as Lucien is, made Olivia sure her decision was the right one.
As Olivia would look suspicious if she didn't accept the crystal, she thanked Ivan.
Ivan laughed. "You don't need to thank me, after all, we are partners... In fact, I consider you-"
Olivia feared that Ivan was going to say something she didn't want to hear, not from another man besides Lucien, so she quickly spoke. "So, you're at the peak of SS-rank, right?"
Ivan couldn't wait to talk about it. He was just waiting for Olivia to ask. "No, I'm not at the peak of SS-rank."
"So..." Olivia already knew that after the SS-rank it was the first layer of the Mortal Realm.
Still, she could not say that she knew this, but to continue acting like everyone else and believing that just like other people in the history of Argerim, it was possible to reach the legendary SSS-rank.
Ivan broadly smiled as he raised his hand. His fist started to glow with a red light and then started to catch fire.
"Not only am I in SSS-rank, but I also awakened a legendary ability, just like the Sage King."
Olivia was really impressed with the efficiency of the crystals, but she understood that Ivan must have used most of the crystals on himself while Lucien could make so many women stronger, some on the same level or stronger than Ivan, with just his "love"."
Astrid was also impressed by Ivan's flaming fist. She was already in the Mortal Realm, so she could recognize the energy that emanated from Ivan and was sure that he was also in the first layer of the Mortal Realm, just like her.
Still, Astrid can't help but think to herself. 'So what if you are in the Mortal Realm? Although I would need some time to kill you, Hubby can tear your head off in a few seconds.'
Ivan kept his fist on fire even though it was quickly consuming his mana to impress Olivia, but soon he felt severe pain in his arm.
"Ahhrg!!" He groaned as his fist stopped burning.
"Are you okay?! What happened??!" Olivia exclaimed.
Ivan stopped using his mana, and the pain started to decrease. Then he smiled at Olivia, happy that she seemed concerned for him.
"It was nothing. I think it's from using a lot of crystals, so my mana is a little unstable... But that is not serious. I just feel some pain from time to time."
Olivia couldn't help but keep comparing the crystals with what Lucien can do, which apparently have side effects such as pain and mana instability. While the side effects of Lucien's methods were her having multiple orgasms, which she certainly loves very much.
Astrid shook her head as she thought. 'Nice Mortal Realm, asshole.'
