"Good morning, may I come in?" Sarah asked.

"Sure," Leon said.

Usually, Gisela would be training, but since Leon and herself were sick of eating hot dogs, cakes, and other types of junk food, she decided to make good use of the cooking utensils they bought and used over the last month. Thus, Gisela was making breakfast. That day she was making pancakes since it had been almost a decade since the last time Leon ate that.

"Good morning, Sarah," Gisela smiled.

"Morning, Gisela, it is good to see that you are still full of life," Sarah said, showing a tired smile. " I want to talk more, but... I don"t have much time. Leonard, congratulations on completing your first mission so fast. Here is your payment."

Sarah offered a handshake, and Leon accepted, then he received fifty thousand coins. Ten thousand was supposed to be his salary; the other ten was for the job completed. Leon also expected to obtain more ten for the dust of the skeletons...

"You received a bonus for the information you obtained," Sarah explained. "Usually, we would let you rest for a few weeks, but there is to time. The directors want you to partic.i.p.ate in a certain mission, you already proved your abilities, and with your new weapon, your presence will be required."

"Is that why you look so tired?" Leon asked.

"Yes, some important missions will be done over the next few weeks, and I have been doing preparations here and there," Sarah explained. "Anyway, about the mission. Ah, before that... you have been promoted again. Your salary doubled, and you can hire more maids, and... what was it again?"

"... You are really tired, aren"t you?" Leon frowned.

"Sorry... I didn"t sleep last night." Sarah ma.s.saged her eyebrows. "Well, I will tell you about your new benefits later."

"Isn"t my promotion a bit too soon?" Leon faked his surprise.

"Yes... the directors can see your potential, but they can"t imagine that you are on the same level as the other rank S members," Sarah explained. "Although you don"t have the same amount of raw power as them, you obtained a skill that can be very useful to the next missions... by the way, don"t tell the contents of the mission to anyone."

"The power to summon skeletons..." Leon said.

"That is right," Sarah added.

Leon nodded, but he was a bit surprised, even though he was still holding back, to be considered weaker than the S members of the organization while being able to defeat a grim reaper almost alone and now with the power to summon skeletons... He had no idea how those guys were, but they must be quite the powerful bunch.

Now that Leon thought about it, he had no idea in which category summoning skeletons fall in. He didn"t use any elements to summon them; it wasn"t an offensive, defensive, or support spell either. Of all things Leon wanted to learn, summoning magic was the thing Leon had not a single idea of how to emulate.

"We lost control over a dungeon last week," Sarah explained. "It is located in Dallas, and we lost five of our S rank members due to it. It is almost impossible to clear it, so we are abandoning that area for the time being."

Leon showed a difficult face, Dallas wasn"t that far from Las Vegas, the nearest which had survivors was Houston, but eventually, those monsters would become a threat to the whole country.

"How are the dungeon break and the mission related?" Leon asked.

"As I said, we are abandoning the area until this mission is complete," Sarah answered. "If you and rank S members who will partic.i.p.ate complete the mission, we will obtain a relic that will help us defeat the monsters."

"A relic... come to think of it, what kind of monsters are we talking about?" Leon asked.

"Demons... I didn"t see them, but from the reports, I read..." Sarah hesitated. "They are quite cruel and despicable, even for monsters."

Leon frowned when he heard; it didn"t look like Sarah was using a figure of speech... the monsters were really demons. However, the other half of the mission worried Leon.

"The relic is in the hands of the Russians, almost all Europe is under their control," Sarah said. "However, we know exactly where the relic is... and we will have to steal it. Your job will be to create an army of skeletons and attack Rome. Meanwhile, the other members involved in the mission will use the diversion you will cause to infiltrate Vatican City. Where the relic is being kept."

The mission was so crazy that Leon didn"t even bother to hide his astonishment. He waited for a few minutes processing that information while waiting for Sarah to say that was a joke, but Leon wasted his time. William, Sanchez, and Allison already made an enemy out of j.a.pan. They probably thought a nation of that size wouldn"t be a problem later, and they couldn"t be more wrong... and now they were challenging another country that had a ma.s.sive territory and probably hundreds of thousands of powerful survivors under their command. There was only one possible explanation... William and the other two were mad.

"Director William said that he is putting a huge burden on you, but it is necessary to save the citizens of the Alliance," Sarah said. "You and the others will leave in the middle of the night in order not to be seen by anyone. Go to the arena at midnight. This time, Gisela will have to stay behind."