“Is this guy for real?”

“Maybe he hit his head or something.”

The two warriors looked at me with confused faces.

I think I could have phrased that better…

“I'm actually here to see Mister Eren, he told me to come.”

“Are you sure you didn't hit your head?” The one warrior persisted.

The other leaned a bit closer, his eyes sharpened over me.

“Hey, I know this kid. Black hair with red streaks, crimson eyes…he's that new unique skill holder!”

“What?!! This scrawny kid–”

The warrior stopped mid-sentence and adjusted his eyes, he observed me from head to toe.

“Now that you mention it, he’s actually a lot more muscular than I thought.” The warrior observed.

I noticed it a few nights before as well, ever since reaching level twenty I had started to look the part of an adventurer. My arms were more toned and my whole upper body had a more triangular shape to it.

Not to mention, I felt stronger than before. I wasn’t sure if it was plain ego but I could see from the aura they emitted that I was as strong if not stronger than both of the adventurers in front of me.

“Sorry kid but unique skill or not, we can't just let you through. If you had an appointment, we would have known about it.”

I was tempted to jump the fence but those spears of theirs put that plan to rest. Fighting right in front of their guild building was a doomed idea I didn’t even entertain.

This is a real pain after I came all the way here too. Did I hear wrong, maybe mister Eren didn't think I'd actually come over?

I weighed the options in my head and stared at the ground.

“Thank you but I'll take it from here.”

I recognised that silvery voice immediately, it was still too fresh in my mind to forget.

I looked up anxiously and sure enough, mister Eren stood behind the gate.

The two warriors guarding the gate placed their right arm over their chest in a salute, in perfect unison.

““Sir!””

“Thank you, I'll escort our guest myself.”

Their jaws, along with mine, dropped. The word ‘guest’ echoed back out of both their mouths in a confused tone.

I was as surprised as them, it was a massive honour just to be invited but to be escorted in by the guild leader… I felt like royalty.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

The cold steel gates opened for me to pass through. The passing adventurers within the property all stopped to watch as Mister Eren guided me into their guild building.

The endless stares and prying gazes of adventures flooded me with anxiety.

I kept my head low as we passed through the front doors, all the way past the lobby and into the main hall.

It looked massive from the outside but when I was actually in there, it felt ten times larger. The main hall had a cross pathway that led to separate paths on each side and a larger door in front of us.

“We're going into this one,” he said and pointed to the large door.

I know I was invited but why am I so anxious all of a sudden?

Their building was quite lavish, it was built with a smooth white stone and tall pillars throughout the passages.

It reminded me of the dungeon we had just left, well, minus all the ice.

“Are you nervous?”

“Well…” I thought of how to reply and decided on the blunt approach. “You haven't told me what I'm here for yet.”

Mister Eren stopped in front of the door with his hand hovered over it. His expression straightened and the atmosphere turned tense.

“I think you deserve the truth since you came all the way here after I asked you to. I was hoping you'd stand in on a meeting, I think you'd be of great help on the matter.”

“A meeting, are you sure it's okay?” I asked nervously.

“Being the number one adventurer does come with its perks you know.”

What could I possibly help him with? Is it about my skill, no, I doubt there’d be a whole meeting about that. This must be something I’d be able to help with that nobody else can, the best way to find out is just to go along with it.

“I see…well if it's okay, I'd be honoured to accompany you.”

He smiled with a warm gaze and pushed the doors open. He barely moved his hands and both doors separated with a large swing.

It was a large pearly room, with a wheel-shaped table and smooth wooden seats positioned around it. The decorations that hung from the walls were an endless display of achievements and souvenirs from their guild's history.

We must have been the last to arrive because a group of important-looking people all sat around the table.

They turned to us and greeted mister Eren with warm welcomes. Their faces got a lot more gloomy when they saw me beside him.

“Good to see you again Master Gardner and uhm…who is this?”

The one to greet us was an older man, what little hair he had left was all white. His confused gaze fell over me and didn’t change much after Mister Eren’s response.

“This is Rei Alos, a silver-ranked adventurer. I'm sorry for bringing a guest unannounced but I believe he might have some invaluable intel on our situation.”

“Situation?” I spoke out.

My hands immediately covered my lips right after the words escaped my mouth. Going in, I planned to watch and listen only, nothing more. Yet, in the first few seconds of the meeting, I had already broken that rule.

“It's quite alright my boy, if you're here on Master Gardener's invitation, then you are welcome to speak your mind.” Another man spoke out.

Mr. Eren and I both took a seat around the table and the others spoke up,

“Over the last few weeks, we have seen a dramatic increase in abnormal monster activity.”

“At first we thought that they might simply be strong monsters amongst the groups, such as pack leaders. The more we looked into the matter, the more we realised it was something else entirely.”

The people around the table continued to explain the dilemma one after the other, I couldn't help feeling that it was all building up to something much greater.

“After battling with a few of them, my guild's smaller groups discovered that they were wandering bosses.”

My eyes widened,

“A Wandering Boss?!”

Mr. Eren crossed his arms, a firm expression beamed towards me.

“Judging by your reaction, you realise how rare of an occurrence this is. For each of these reports to be separate Wandering Bosses poses the question, what is changing in the Tower?”

I thought that the wandering boss I beat was the only one but if there's a whole bunch more…there's only one group I can think of that might have the power to do that.

Ilinore…what are you up to?