"Well Boss, what will be our first objective?" Mountain says with a pep in his step and a wide smile on his face. Ryan looks at him with a face full of doubt.
"Boss? First you called me newbie and within what, 2 day I'm Boss now?" Ryan says with a chuckle. Mountain chuckles back and scratches the back of his head.
"Well you are the leader of the group now, so it would be inappropriate to call you anything y'know?"
"Yeah I get it, I'm just messin' with you Mountain." Ryan says playfully back at Mountain. The Undead Legion is currently making their way to the lobby. Ryan hasn't been there yet and he is interested what jobs will be posted on the board today.
As the four walk into the lobby, Ryan's eyes are met with something he did not expect. He had expected a quiet and humble place for Mercenaries to meet up, accept a quest, and then leave. But this place is different.
The atmosphere is full of happiness and joy as people drink booze at booths attached to the walls; people dance in the middle of the room while a sweet tune is played by a musician in the corner; finally, people are gathered around a quest board and they are happily chatting way. Laughter in plentiful and everyone in the room seems happy. The scene laid out before him reminds Ryan of the old parties his party used to through before they became "Gods".
Everything in the room changes though as Ryan takes a few more steps into the room, followed by his new team. Everyone in the room quiets down and they all look at Ryan with a keen interest yet fear in their eyes. No one has ever came into the Mercenaries Guild as a Rank A before so they all wanted to see Ryan's strength, yet they all feared to face it at the same time.
Ryan doesn't even know himself why he came in as a Rank A, since all he has done since he showed up into this world is get beaten up or be caught by surprised, almost ending in his death.
Ryan audibly sighs as he wants to be more careful since this is most likely real life now, but their is a voice in the back of his head saying that this is all just a game. Ryan puts his guard down because of that, who cares if you die in a game? It's just pixels after all, but to Ryan, he has learned his mistake and plans to not take anything lightly or carefree. He needs to discover his true power again, but that will come in due time.
With Ryan and his team making their way over to the request board, everyone there part ways and makes a gap for Ryan and his group to walk through. Ryan shrugs his shoulders and accepts the opening in the sea of people in front of the request board.
As the four walk up to the board Ryan begins to skim over the huge stacks of requests on the board. Though he is able to read most of the language on the board, some of it is foreign to him. He assumes they are the names of beast and such but in all honesty, Ryan can't think of a job to pick.
With all eyes on his back, Ryan feels a pressure to hurry up and pick a request and leave so everyone can get back to what they are doing. Literally everyone stopped what they were doing to observe Ryan and the Undead Legion and it made Ryan fairly uncomfortable.
Ryan sighs and turns around to his group.
"You guys pick a request that you want to do. I feel like I need a drink." Ryan sighs with a face full of stress. Mountain gives Ryan a thumbs up.
"Leave it to us boss!" Ryan nods to this statement and makes his way to what seems to be the bar were drinks are being served. The bartender straights his back as Ryan approaches him.
"W-What would you like sir?" the bartender says in a stutter. Ryan pays the man's formalities no heed and he looks along the many shelves of drinks that line the wall behind the sweating bartender.
"Is there anything free, or do we have to pay here?" Ryan asks in a curious tone.
"Everything here is free to your disposal Mr. Frew." the bartender says immediately. Ryan frowns at the fact the man knows his name and wonders why the man said 'to your disposal'. Is being a Rank A really that special?
'Whatever, I'll use whatever perks I can get.'
"Then I'll take a shot of your strongest drink." Ryan says with a slightly regretful voice. It was a little early to be drinking but it didn't matter if it was just one shot. Plus it is something to keep him mind off all the stares at his back.
The bartender hurriedly pours the drink for Ryan and hands it over. Ryan instantly downs the shot and can barely feel a burn in his throat. Ryan thought he had asked for the strongest but maybe they didn't have strong alcohol in this world.
Ryan's finger begins to trace around the rim of the shot glass and he looks up at the bartender with a face of dead seriousness. The bartender pulls back a bit and lets out a slight shriek in surprise. No man should make this shriek and it honestly surprise a Ryan a little bit.
'Is my presence really that intimidating?' he thought to himself.
"So, answer me this. What's with all of this?" Ryan says to the bartender while pointing over his shoulder at all of the people staring at him. Once they realized how obvious they are, everyone turns there gaze away and begins to do what they were doing when Ryan originally entered the room. The bartender cringes at the sound of Ryan's metal gauntlets scraping against the rim of the shot glass. Ryan doesn't stop his serious stare at the man though. Finally giving in to answering the question, bartender's voice is shaky.
"Everything about you is horrifying. Someone who managed to join in the Guild as the highest rank behind the legendary heroes or kings is unheard of. No one here is above Rank A and it took they several years to get there. If you can in at the level, that would make you the strongest person in the Guild. People just want to be wary not to get on your bad side, ya know?" the bartender says with a rapid pace to explain everything quickly.
Ryan nods his head up in down with acceptance of this explanation. Ryan is literally a first of his kind as a Mercenary yet he really doesn't know why. Ryan thinks he is barely at 10% of his power yet he is considered this strong. Either everyone is this world is weak, or Ryan is really one of the best fighters in this world too. Though, there are the other 9 Gods so words of people as strong as Ryan should spread soon. With that, it will be easy to find the other Gods.
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This pulls a huge weight off of Ryan's back as he can find his friends relatively easy. Ryan slides the empty shot glass to the other side of the bar so the bartender can take it. Ryan feels like he has gotten enough information from this man and he turns around to walk away, but the bartender speaks up.
"I am warning you now Mr. Frew. Watch out for Bloody Eyes. They will be coming to challenge you and test your worth." the man says in a worried yet surprisingly confident voice. Ryan laughs and looks over his shoulder at the bartender. A fire is lit in Ryan's eyes.
"Then let them come. I will let them taste the power of the Abyss Watchers." and with that being said, Ryan makes his way over to the rest of his group which seem to be discussing something with the receptionist behind the counter. As Ryan becomes close enough to hear the conversation, he decides to interject.
"What's wrong Mountain?" Ryan says as he walks up beside the large man. Mountain seems to be agitated at something and Ryan intends to help his new teammate out.
"This woman won't let us take the job we want! She says we don't have enough people, even if we are Rank A. Why does that even matter woman!" Mountain says with an uproar. Ryan puts his hand up to stop his comrade and the receptionist, who was confident in enforcing the rules in the Guild, stiffens up when she realizes who Ryan is. Ryan looks at the woman and begins to question her.
"Why do we need 10 people exactly?" Ryan asks with a gentle yet stern voice to the woman. He doesn't want to be rude but he doesn't want to sound weak to everyone around him, who is sure to be listening. The woman bites her lip as she had heard from Tio to not get on Frew's (Ryan's) bad side. It would only end in catastrophe. Another rule was to never use any powers involving the Abyss.
"Well, it is suggested when taking request for exterminating monsters with the augmentation of the Abyss that you should at least take 10 B Rank Mercenaries." the woman says and she begins to cringe in fear slightly. She knows even the word Abyss would most likely trigger Ryan, and she was right.
Ryan can feel anger pang inside of him and his blood begins to boil furiously as he reads the quest. Several villages have been destroyed by a group of Abyssal monsters and no one has been willing to accept the quest due to its dangers. The payout was quite small too since it came from poor village surrounding the destroyed villages. Ryan gets closer to the woman and the inside of his eyes begins to slowly turn golden.
"I don't care whether the suggestion is 100 A Rank adventures and I'm by myself. You will not stop me from taking an Abyss type creatures no matter who you think you are. Do you got me?" Ryan says as he begins to emit an intense pressure from within. The woman is shaking in fear but she knows that this situation will be a lose-lose no matter what she says.
Pissing off the strongest Mercenary in the Guild is a scary thing to do but also breaking the rules and pissing of the Guild can be even scarier. The woman racks her brain on what to do and she thinks there will be a happy medium for everyone if she can only convince Ryan to do another quest instead.
The woman puts her hand under the desk and pulls out another request that would pay enough to get the attention on an A Rank adventurer but was easily completed.
"How about doing this quest inste-."
*CHOP*
The sound of Ryan's dagger piercing into the wooden counter echoes throughout the room and his face becomes extremely cold and unforgiving. The dagger had pierced itself into the quest about the Abyss type monsters. The woman shrieked a little when Ryan first stuck the dagger into the wood and now her mind is going numb in fear.
"I will not repeat myself. Let us take the request and go about your day." Ryan chuckles a little before stating the next statement. "Or we will be taking our services elsewhere."
Though it was a shallow threat and is a cowardly tactic, the fire burning within Ryan's soul to eliminate the Abyss is something that will gladly push away Ryan's morals and pride for him to even get a chance at hurting the Abyss. Just like the Abyss Watchers before him.
Mountain felt bad for the woman behind the counter as he has been on the other side of Ryan's wrath and it is a truly horrifying experience. The woman gulps loudly as she begins to mull over Ryan threat. The woman then pulls out a stamp from under her desk and stamps the paper which Ryan has a dagger through, showing that they have been assigned the quest.
Ryan removes the dagger and holds it in his left hand. With his right hand he takes the paper without breaking eye contact with the woman.
"Let's go." Ryan says with a tone of authority in his voice and he finally breaks eye contact with the woman. Carmella smiles at the woman and bows her head and thanks and Carmello simply shakes his head in pity for the woman.
"Sorry about that Miss!" Mountain says with a cheerful tone, "You should never say no to an Abyss Watcher, it only ends badly for you!"
With that, the Undead Legion leaves the Guild building and are off to meet the one who made the request. With the 4 being gone, everyone in the room lets out a long sigh in relief. The average mercenary was about Rank C and seeing a group with 4 Rank A's was truly intimidating to them. No one blamed Ryan for the methods he used to accept the quest. In honest, they are happy that he did.
Several people have died in the wake of those monsters but everyone capable of taking care of the monsters were too scared or were busy with something else. With that being said, some of the people in the room became inspired by Ryan's actions. To be so confident that he can take down Abyssal Undead Dragons, Ryan must be as strong as Tio lets him off to be, so people aspire to be by Ryan's side and see his excellence for themselves, but first, they must become stronger.
One person in particular that was inspired by Ryan's actions is a fairly young Mercenary named Lohek, who is a mere Rank D, but he had lost his hometown village to the monster and wanted to see someone finally take them down. With Ryan taking on the quest, Lohek wants to train hard to be able to repay Ryan if he comes back successful.