The Ancient Genes

One Bar, Plum District, Ocien.

The place was lively as it had gotten darker outside.

A group of men sat in the corner laughing and enjoying their time with hostesses around. And, among this group was a person who had been following Argus earlier. The man was constantly scanning the bar with a cautious look on his face.

At this moment, Max and Ragnar entered the place.

Their eyes soon met with a few members of their team who had been put onto that man's trail. It only took a moment, before Max located their target with these people's help.

The man who had been on alert definitely sensed the hostile intent from Max, and slowly got up before hurriedly trying to leave.

Max wasn't in a hurry as well. He deliberately allowed him to run in hopes of getting the man out from this congested place.

The three of them, one man ahead and two behind quickly moved through the crowded bar before hurrying out of the back door into the alley.

"Whoosh!"

As soon as they were out, the man immediately broke out into a dash, not hiding his strength in the least. Before Max could even take an action, Ragnar took a step and pushed his feet against the ground taking a huge leap.

In a single leap, his body flew a huge distance and he immediately flew over the fleeing guy's headed and landed ahead, blocking the man's path.

"W-Who are you?" The man immediately stopped as he looked around between Max and Ragnar with a panicked look on his face.

"Where are our people?" Raganar asked as he took a step ahead.

"I don't know what you are talking about. I am just a retired mage." The guy tried to feign ignorance.

"We know everything…you better stop this act.." Ragnar stooped a little and stared right into the man's eyes.

"Whoosh!"

The man who was all scared suddenly seemed to change his expression, and his hand moved as a ball of flame appeared in it.

"Boom!"

At a close range, it didn't seem that Ragnar had any chance of dodging. The ball of flames exploded right onto his face.

A frown appeared on Max's face and as he was about to move, a surprising scene occurred.

Ragnar's face emerged from the flames completely harmed and slammed right onto the man's forehead.

"Crack!"

A crisp noise sounded as the man's forehead caved in. And, with blood oozing out of his mouth and nostrils, he fainted right on the spot.

"Tsk…weak ass punk.." Ragnar snorted before looking at Max who stood there in surprise.

And, why wouldn't he be.

Max was very clear that this guy actually took the attack with his raw body. That was ridiculous.

'It seems they are not as weak as I imagined them to be..' Max muttered inwardly.

"Let's go..we need to hurry back.." He looked at Ragnar and further stated.

…

A few hours later..

"Slam!"

"How is this possible?!!!" Synthia slammed her fist on the table. Her eyes were red, and the anger on her face was very evident.

Max and everyone else were all sitting around as well. Their faces didn't look good at all.

It had been a few hours since Rihanna's disappearance. And, they had literally swept the worker's district to find any traces of her, but it didn't help at all. She seemed to have vanished in thin air.

The guy they had caught earlier actually didn't turn out to be much of a help.

They only found out that he was from the Dark Society, and had been going around in groups killing their people. And, since Rihanna was missing, it was most likely that she..

It was bad news in all honesty.

But, everyone refused to believe it.

Max too was surprised when he saw their level of confidence and heard their words. According to them even a Grandmaster Tier mage wouldn't be able to stop Rihanna from leaving, and even from a Supreme, the chances were around 50 percent.

This really shocked Max, even he wouldn't have dared to be so conceited. He didn't know where their confidence came from, but seeing that they all said the same thing, Max believed that there had to be some basis for it.

"Sir, the information is here.." At this moment, the Elderly man appeared beside Max.

Max had asked him to check for some information.

Rihanna was bugged by some factory's changes. Hence, he wanted to know which factory this was. But, they didn't have a name.

Max could only search for himself regarding this matter. He had asked the old man to see which factory had been making some suspicious changes recently.

"Did you send your people to check these places?" Max asked as he looked at the list of factories.

"Yes, nothing has been found out of the ordinary.." The Elderly man nodded.

"Where did Rihanna go then?!" Synthia was going crazy in worry.

"Is it possible that she had deliberately hidden herself somewhere?" Max asked. "After all, if she had the power to escape Grandmaster Tier mage then, I am sure she would have raised a commotion in the District and alerted everyone if something happened to her."

It was a reasonable argument.

"What if she was trapped? Formations can block things.." Bell reminded.

"A formation can't be sensed if it isn't activated. We need a strong Formations Master if we want to find any residual energy from formations. Do we have such a person?" Argus asked with a gloomy look on his face.

"Let's contact back and ask for help," Synthia said with a serious look on her face.

Her words immediately made a frown appear on everyone's face, especially Max. If help came, would it be treated as his loss? Would he lose his rewards?

The other guys looked at each other and then sighed. Even though this was going to bring them some kind of trouble, they had no option here. They couldn't treat Rihanna's life so casually.

But, to their surprise, the Elderly man spoke at this moment, "The only one who can ask for help is the Commander. Only, he can give the order to cancel the mission and request for help."

With that, everyone's gazes turned towards Max.

I