"We don't want to draw too much attention here, so drink this." She said, handing him a flask, which was a bluish liquid.
Luke tried to analyze the liquid and suddenly had his hand lowered by the woman. "What are you doing? Do you want the whole party to see it?"
"What is it?" He inquired, suspicious.
"It's an elixir to hide our half-beastly features." She said, took the bottle from his hand, and took a quick sip.
Soon after, the beautiful reddish horns of the half-dragon slowly disappeared like magic.
"I-is that really possible?" He questioned, and without even asking, tried to touch Alexis' horns. Toc! He touched the girl's horns. 'So, they're still here... just camouflaged.' He concluded.
'Ah... Hah ?" Alexis let out a low, restrained groan, and as she looked at the man shyly, she requested: "Can you t-take your hand away, please?"
Coming back to reality, Luke quickly removed his hand from her right horn and, to get out of the awkward situation as quickly as possible, drank the elixir. After that, he felt nothing, not even reflux.
Gently, he smoothed his hair and felt that between them were still his ears. 'Did it really work?'
Alexis noticed the half-wolf's harried expression, so she pulled a small mirror from his bag and opened it in front of Luke's face.
"It's really gone..." He spoke, barely able to believe that there was such a thing as this convenient.
"N-now stop touching your ear, please... it's embarrassing for me." Alexis said, face flushed as she put the mirror and vial away in her purse.
The half-beast duo promptly joined the rest of the group, to enter the castle. Ayumi looked at the half-dragon with clenched eyes, filled with distrust until she noticed that the woman's horns were gone, as were the half-wolf's ears.
"What have you done?" She inquired, running her hand over the half-wolf's head.
Luke shivered a little as he felt the woman's delicate hand touch him. "And they're still here. It's just camouflage, so we don't draw too much attention."
"And that's been around since when? I've never heard of it..." Shiro spoke, also shocked, after all, this would have been very useful so that Luke and Meredith could have lived a more normal life.
"It's an expensive, custom-made product. I only use it when I really deem it necessary and if I take it constantly, the effect of the elixir will last for a shorter and shorter period."
Elixirs are not the same things as potions, and this is general knowledge for everyone. While potions are easily prepared by those who have the necessary knowledge and resources, elixirs are imbued with magic that arises from some specific types of gene ability.
Because these abilities are rare, so are elixirs, which makes them much more expensive than most potions.
There are elixirs of various effects. Some can grant you night vision temporarily and others can increase all your attributes by several times, but the more powerful an elixir is, the shorter it lasts.
However, even Ayumi had never heard of an elixir that could cloak someone, much less specific body parts. Still, she decided not to focus too much on that and decided that she should enjoy the party, after all, she hadn't had many opportunities to go for one in a while.
As they walked up the marble stairs, the quintet immediately began to attract curious glances. There were many adventurers at this party, and most of them didn't even know how to wear a tuxedo properly, so the three beautiful women quickly drew attention for their elegance.
"Who are they?"
"I'll go talk to them..."
"Nahh! You wouldn't have the guts."
After being doubted, the F-Class Adventurer couldn't help but try, so he gathered his courage and walked toward the women as soon as they reached the top of the marble staircase.
"Excuse me, ladies. You are..." The man was ignored like a mere fly by the three women.
They were used to all kinds of clueless men, and since they already had a goal in mind that night, they didn't even bother to dismiss him formally.
This contempt made one thing clear to everyone who saw it happen: they were unattainable and on another level.
A gentle wind ruffled the treetops and carried on until it touched the end of the ravine through which the bridge passed, whistling on the rocks there. Shhhh!
When they finally reached the other side of the bridge, Shiro, Nathalia, Ayumi, Luke, and Alexis saw how elegant the castle was. The architecture was lavishly detailed, especially the front columns, which displayed statues of the living dead wearing armor.
To Luke and Alexis, this was macabre, but to the others, it was a clear sign of ostentation, because of the rich detail in them.
After entering the castle, the quintet was greeted by several types of stares, but their main targets were Luke and Shiro, who were wearing not-so-good tuxedos because they had to rent the last ones available in Vasconcelos' only atelier.
While Nathalia and Ayumi were immediately recognized, the Class-E and Class-C Adventurers began to be scorned with looks.
"I bet they are waiters who came in through the wrong entrance..."
"How do they have the nerve to come in here? They should stay outside with the rest of the Adventurer rabble..."
"At least they're brave... they're following Miss Strogueher closely. I'm going to go over there and take care of them..." A man with a crooked smile spoke to the group of friends.
From a distance, Shiro, Luke, and Alexis felt the bloodlust of the man coming down the stairs from the second to the second floor. He was wearing a flashy magenta suit, whose green tie did not match his dry blond hair at all.
The large curly staircase he was walking down gave him a highlight and caused him to attract the attention of several people.
"That's Nathan Dubois, isn't it? I didn't know he'd be here."
"Girlfriend, it really is him. They say he's close to reaching Class-C, isn't that amazing?"
With each rank, the number of quests required to move up can triple or double, depending on the Guild. That is, if it takes ten quests to move up from F-Class to E-Class, it will take at least twice as many quests to move up from E-Class, and so on.
So even those who are not Class-A or S command a lot of respect, mainly because of experience and motivation.
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