Chapter 2051: Failed Recruitments
The person who lost his nose and injured feet was called Cogs, who was part of the Swagen mercenary team, one of the Rolan Mercenary Team’s rivals in Twinwave Town.
That rivalry could get bloody, depending on who was involved, but mostly it was just professional rivalry that could get intense here and there.
One of the things they raced towards was whoever was going to get promoted to A-Class Mercenary!
Over the past year, the Rolan Mercenary team had made a lot of big moves that took them off guard. Not only did they upgrade to a B-Class team before they did, but they also moved to their own town!
Damn!
Anyway, this also spurred a mass mission-taking among the members of the Swagen mercenary team!
Cogs had a mission in Mecca Town a while back, taking a mission back for added points. The mission was something they just did ’by the way,’ he did not expect he’d get injured like this! Even the tip of his nose was taken away!
GGgggrRRRRRR!
"Calm down..." his medic teammate, Chell, said as she bandaged him up.
There were many injuries among all groups, so after they traveled a bit farther from the bloodied area, they found a place to camp.
It was still early in the day, but they decided to spend the night there so people could recover more.
"How can I calm down!?" Cogs gritted his teeth. "They started it!"
A teammate suffered near-lethal injury then, and he was also wounded. Seeing other people so leisurely, who could be calm?
To be fair, he really only said some mean words due to high stress. But then they went ahead and injured him! Bastard! Bitch!
"Not even considering that it was a misunderstanding and you really misjudged them, even if you didn’t, you splattered out a lot of insults to proud elementalists.
"If you say that to, say, the boss, do you think you’d keep your life?"
"But they’re not the boss!"
"But the logic is similar, isn’t it? You insult them and they, who are powerful and prideful, hurt you in turn. You have a limited vocabulary yet you fill it up with insults. I’m honestly surprised you still have your head."
In the world where strength ruled, retaliating with excess force was not unusual. Expecting that only equal force retaliation would happen was naive, especially in a group of fighters who did not know each other.
Cogs gritted his teeth. Did he really have to swallow this bitterness?!
Unexpectedly, the woman appeared next to them, emerald eyes fixed on his bandages.
"Sorry for your nose," she said, and Cogs almost calmed down.
"I was aiming for your tongue."
"You—"
"I am joking."
"?!?"
...
Chell stared at the other woman with interest.
A powerful archer who could control vines with such finesse. Wherever she was from, especially seeing her temperament, he knew that her position cannot be low.
"Would you like to switch to our Swagen Mercenary team? The benefits are very good. Our Mercenary team is the largest in Twinwave town, a very rich town."
He did not count those jerks from the Rolan Mercenary team. In many local mercenaries’ eyes, they were (sort-of) traitors! Not the level of enemies, of course, but certainly at the level of eyesores!
Althea looked at them, and for a moment they thought she was considering it.
"Does your mercenary team provide you with Class D equipment and several consumables every month?"
"No." They could be assisted or their equipment could be bought on loan, but they wouldn’t be given for free unless they were top-level masters.
"Does your mercenary team find masters for you to train your skills in?"
"...no."
Who does this?
"Then does your team give good accommodation for each member, not just upper tiers?"
She shook her head. "...No..."
At best, they were squeezed into a dorm-type room with several beds.
It was a bit worse for the girls since people had a bias that they needed a much smaller space than men, so their rooms could fit a few more beds.
"What about food? Are you familiar with Alterran food? Yeah, all the food must be at that level."
Alterran-level food!? All meals? No way...right?
"...no..." she mumbled, voice even lower than before.
"Then it’s not even comparable to mine."
Chell’s stance had softened, somewhat shifted, and she looked at Althea with a similar longing look on her face, albeit from a different direction.
"Then, is your mercenary team hiring?"
Cogs: ???!
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the camping area, one of the carriages opened their curtains, revealing pretty women. They blinked at Garan, sending him seductive smiles.
Even with makeup that dulled their features, Garan was still a bit handsome. Not to mention, his charm was not entirely on his face, but on his ability and aura.
His body was also top-notch. Some women’s sticky eyes couldn’t be taken away.
He was an excellent fighter with extreme reliability. Who wouldn’t be attracted?
The two women in the carriage looked at him with admiration, with one of them being forward and arrogant.
"YOU! Come closer!"
Garan pretended not to hear her. Althea, who had just returned from her ’apology’ sighed and ignored them as well.
The people inside the carriages were employers who paid for their escort. Many of them had the mindset of ’I paid for your service, so serve me’.
"Hey!"
Ignored.
"COME BACK HERE!"
Ignored again.
"We are mercenaries hired to protect the caravan, not to be your servants," she said, pausing. "You can’t afford it."
"You!" the woman shrieked. "Are you not afraid I will ruin your reputation?"
"You can try. The Mercenary Hall only requires us to do our best to protect our employers to a reasonable degree and sacrifice," she said, tracing over the other woman’s face. "But admittedly, this is becoming too much of a ’sacrifice’."
"Bitch!"
Immediately, the surroundings became cold and people became guarded around Garan. Garan worked mostly at the periphery and at a distance. A lot of his prowess wasn’t actually witnessed by most.
Now, seeing the air around instantaneously cool down, with some moisture showing signs of freezing, they realized that they had grossly underestimated the man.
"What a powerful element!"
One of the elementalists said this. Elementalists were far more sensitive to things like this, so his words had weight.
Fortunately, before the tension could get any worse, Althea stepped forward to calm him down.
"It’s fine, husband," Althea said, patting his arm, and only then did the temperature become normal. She then gave the woman a look. "Just imagine a noisy gugu bird trying to get attention."
"WHAT!!!"
The bystanders couldn’t help but palm their faces. Was Miss Althea trying to calm things down or worsen it? They honestly couldn’t tell anymore.
The guards and mercenaries just asked the lady to close her window, shocking her when they closed it on her behalf as if asking her to shut up.
Some old people and the team leads of mercenary teams looked at Garan and Althea hungrily, some approaching, likely to send some offers.
"Not for hire," he said, tone low and final, and they had not even asked yet!
"..."
