UNLIMITED SPEED

Ariana had mostly been alone during the initial days of her arrival to the great guild. Although she still had a few individuals whom she could associate with, her focus had been drawn toward the guild and its various activities.

Ariana had begun her quest seeking on the second day of her arrival, and the first mission she had chosen after completing the initial one picked by the guild, had taken her to the abodes of miss Talia.

Talia looked in her mid-forties and sported short and wavy brown hair. She had green eyes, and her face featured no wrinkles, after all, she stood at the higher stage of tier 3, even if only at its initial stages.

Miss Talia, unlike many, was the most down-to-earth individual she had seen in the guild. At least so far. Upon their meeting, the lady had been so engrossed in her studies that Ariana had not been able to get her into properly listening until she herself gave a suggestion.

That simple action had spiraled into a sequence of suggestions and evaluations of those suggestions. Although she made no progress that day, Talia immediately took a liking to Ariana.

What followed was a series of visits, and shockingly Ariana found herself opening up to Talia, and the woman surprisingly had good advice to give in return.

Needless to say, the pieces of information she let out weren't personal ones, just things that had recently started to bother her, and could not be used against her even if miss Talia wanted to.

The duo quickly became close, and Ariana soon learned to accept the messy nature of the expert. After all, she was such a talented alchemist, and she too had a passion for that study.

Lady Talia had what Ariana would call a relative downside. She loved to speak of her achievements. Fortunately, she did so in ways that wouldn't come out as being pompous. Nevertheless, there was pride in her words. But after listening to the lady's achievements Ariana felt she deserved it.

According to the expert, she had brewed two of the physical empowerment and one of the healing potions seen in the establishments owned by the guild itself. And many of them were even shipped out of the guild to be sold in the nation.

Apparently, she had sold the recipes to the guild in return for high-tier materials, even a bit of them being in the fourth tier. Her potions had immediately been considered high quality since they were capable of helping tier 3's even up to the bottom of the higher stage. And she had done all of those while only being in the initial parts of the middle stage.

However, those achievements had forced Ariana into uttering a question. Why had she not gone to the central regions since she had been offered? Unfortunately, Miss Talia had decided to leave the question unanswered. Ariana couldn't probe since it seemed personal to the expert.

"I should get going," Ariana muttered stretching her back. Miss Talia however, looked too deep in her thoughts to hear her, but she didn't mind it and began her walk towards the exit.

"You're leaving already?" Talia suddenly exclaimed her tone that of slight disappointment.

"Yes. I still have to return to the guild hall. And I'm feeling a bit creative after our session," Ariana explained performing a light shrug.

"Hmm... I see. See you later then," miss Talia replied half into her series of thoughts already. Ariana felt sure the expert wouldn't see sleep for the next few days as a result of the fire that burnt in her eyes to find something valuable for her experiments.

Nodding, she turned to leave. "You should talk to that young man you spoke of. Sort things out. Guildmates truly gain their importance in times of need. Trust me you don't want to be caught in an awkward situation if you ever find yourself in need of his help." Miss Talia stopped to look at the red-eyed lady that shared the same interest she had for Alchemy. Something about her felt unique, but even her almost one century of experience couldn't discern it.

Ariana nodded again and walked out of the lab into the small room and then out of the small room. She immediately found herself in a bustling street. The atmosphere of the city seemed to never change, even if it did at times.

Unfortunately, Ariana was already too deep into her thoughts to care about the world around her. She needed to get to her apartment and it stood far from her location. Although miss Talia had refused to go into the central region, she had been given a nice building very close to the grand walls separating the central region from the inner region.

Carriage rides were the best way to find her way back home, and Ariana didn't hesitate to get on a few of them.

The journey had taken her a bit over an hour, but she eventually arrived at the building that held her room. Her eyes landed on Noah's door when she arrived before hers, and she heard Miss Talia's words replay in her head.

With a sigh of helplessness, she placed the rectangular object into her door's keyhole and moved to enter her room, when a sudden powerful fluctuation in the mana around her occurred, making her body tremble.

Her mind raged in surprise and she found herself glancing at different positions in the hallway, searching for the source of the spike in energy. Her eyes landed on Noah's door at some point. "What is he doing," she said under her breath, walking closer to his door.

She waited a few seconds before knocking on the door. Unsure whether or not her knock could be heard, she continued for whole minutes before giving up. Maybe he isn't in there, she had thought, even if she had felt the spike of energy coming from his area.

Needless to say, however, she began to doubt whether it actually came from his room, or it was simply her subconscious trying to get her into a conversation with him.

She eventually settled for asking him about the matter when she saw him. Of course, that was if she had gained a suitable amount of confidence to do so.

Ariana took what she needed from her room and set out to return to the guild hall where more missions and her reward for the recent quest she completed were waiting. She planned to reach rank D before long and the same was for the others who had heard about the achievements of a certain white-haired man.