In opposition to Stark, who was wearing the most average clothes, and had overall the appearance of a guy nobody would pay attention to normally, Lana was completely different.
She was wearing an elegant dress that hugged her curves in all the right places, her long blond hair reaching her waist, and not even needing makeup to be beautiful.
Even during the few seconds it took them to reach the restaurant, dozens of people stopped to observe her beauty (some males attracting the angry gaze of their companions).
She exuded confidence and poise, a true representation of the Heiress of House Moonless, although she did lose her cool when Stark was being hit on for some reason.
As they entered the restaurant, the staff greeted them warmly, and Lana led Stark to their reserved table in a cozy corner.
Stark glanced around the restaurant, taking in the lively atmosphere and the hustle and bustle of the people.
“As you know, I organized this date- I mean meeting to discuss the Hell-Level right that appeared recently,” she spoke, and Stark looked at her with the blankest of expressions.
“We have little to no information about it, but all that we know is that it is gonna open in two days, outside of Fellarburg,” she tapped on her phone to show the location to Stark, “It is reserved for powerful houses and conglomerates, but there will be hundreds of people, so you should watch out…”
“Ok.”
Suddenly, Lana clapped both of her hands, and one of the waiters came to their table with a suitcase, placing it in front of Stark.
“You have to wear this attire and mask when outside and inside the rift, after all, your presence is supposed to be a secret.”
Stark opened the suitcase, and just as she said, there was a smoking, alongside a bunny mask that covered only the upper half of his face.
“Why are you doing this to me? This seems a bit too good…” Stark asked, looking into Lana’s beautiful eyes.
“I will be frank with you, I think you are extremely powerful, and that you will be useful to me in the future, also this is a great opportunity for you to level up,” she smiled for the first time, a genuine one.
“Ok, but I have one simple request.”
“Yes?”
Most classifiers would dream of entering a Hell-Level Secret Rift, yet here he was, asking her for a request, anyone watching this would consider him crazy.
Plus, Secret Rifts were basically a treasure trove since no one had explored them before, allowing dozens upon dozens of equipment to be available for grabs.
High risk, high reward, basically.
“I want to be allowed to roam around the rift alone.”
Lana raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised by his request, but she just nodded.
“Very well, but you’ll have to act as if you are part of the ‘Crimson Moon Squad’, it is our team that is participating in the raid of the rift.”
“Okay,” Stark didn’t care, he was probably out of place among all those powerful classifiers, but he still believed in himself, after all he was sure none of them would have been able to complete that Domination Trial.
He had already experienced Hell once, so there was no way he would be scared.
Stark didn’t know how to talk to women, but he somehow held up a decent conversation with Lana as they were eating.
“Did you see those calamity-level beasts that appeared-” she tried to initiate again after a few minutes of silence.
“No, I don’t know,” he immediately replied, not wanting to talk about his previous companions transforming into these beasts.
“Oh well… okay.”
Soon enough, they finished eating, and said goodbye to each other.
Time passed quickly, and before he knew, two days went by.
Stark woke up early in the morning, before dawn.
“…” he knew it was time to leave.
The Secret Rift was very far, so Lana had requested for him to come to an underground base the ‘Crimson Moon Squad’ used to meet the members, and also to go there.
In contrary to what he believed though, ‘Crimson Moon Squad’ wasn’t truly part of the Moonless family, instead it was more like a group of powerful classifiers they had formed for such occasions, and Lana was only a member too.
It was her father that was the leader (although when he wasn’t present, Vex took his place), and so he asked her to join them for experience, but surprisingly enough also allowed him to be part of it for this expedition.
Stark grabbed the suitcase he had been given in the restaurant and pulled out its contents.
He wore the black and purplish smoking, one that went extremely well with him for some reason.
And as for the white bunny mask, he placed it on his face, covering the upper half. He looked in the mirror, at his transformed appearance, and a strange smile played on his lips.
…
[Item:] Crimson Moon Bunny Mask
[Type:] Mask
[Quality:] Good
[Perk:] Hides your face perfectly, nobody that doesn’t know about your identity will recognize you.
…
There were two other things inside the suitcase though: a red badge adorned with a half-moon on it, it was the ‘Crimson Moon Squad’ logo.
…
[Item:] Crimson Moon Communication Device
[Type:] Badge
[Quality:] Good
[Perk:] Allows all ‘Crimson Moon Squad’ members who wear this badge to communicate with one another using a powerful ‘Telepathy’ and ‘Voice Transmission’ spell.
…
And the final item was a weird potion in a glass, the liquid inside was green.
…
[Item:] Max Health Potion
[Type:] Consummable
[Quality:] Perfect
[Perk:] Heals to full health, and removes any status effect as well as exhaustion.
…
‘Thank you, Lana,’ she was surprisingly considerate even though he had believed she was just a girl who used her family’s money to get what she wanted.
Wearing his two rings, his necklace, the bunny mask, and the ‘Crimson Mood Squad’ uniform, Stark finally set out for the base.
The sun was rising in the east when he arrived in front of an empty bar near the Capital.
“Crimson Light Bar” was the name, and Stark could only guess it was the right location with the name.
It was still mostly night, and the street he was in was mostly empty, so he knocked twice at the wooden door of the bar.
And after a few seconds, it magically opened.
‘Great, another group who tries to seem mysterious,’ he groaned as nobody was behind when the door opened.
And so he entered the bar, the wooden door closing behind as if it was controlled by an unknown force.
After marching through the hall for a few seconds, he arrived in the main area with the bar, tables, and drinks.
And in there, seven people could be seen, three women and four man.
They were the ‘Crimson Moon Squad’.
