Lone accepted Sabrina's offer readily since he needed to go to the Crimson Foxkin Clan, and with a powerhouse like her aboard, it was unlikely that she would get attacked at all, and even if the ship was assaulted by Pirates or Humans or something similar, there were so many strong people aboard that Lone couldn't find a reason to say no to the offer.
As it happened, his group, The Wanderers, would be rewarded with several thousand gold coins, which from Lone's understanding, was actually quite a low amount for a commission being asked of a silver-gold plate Adventurer, but Sabrina explained this by saying that Lone's group hadn't taken the request from the Guild and that she was letting him and his friends on board to satisfy her own whims.
Lone hardly cared since gold meant nothing to him or his group, but he accepted nonetheless.
"It's pretty weird how she just let us on and even gave us the task of protecting the cargo and ship in case of any mishaps, huh?" Lone said in passing as he and his group walked down to the galley from the deck to meet the other groups hired for this job.
"Not really," Eolande shrugged as she floated behind him. Although her race was damn-near extinct, she looked so much like a Pixie or a Fairy that anyone who saw her only briefly admired her flying and beauty before getting back to what they were previously doing.
"Hmm? Why do you say that?" Lone replied with interest in his tone. Rarely were his thoughts wrong, and he knew Eolande wouldn't casually disregard him like that unless she had a reason to.
Eolande smiled devilishly and giggled a bit. "You're not considering things from her perspective," she claimed as she waggled her index finger like a Teacher would.
"Explain," Lone replied coldly. Eolande's condescending attitude really motivated Lone to change from his prior arrogant ways even more so than Clicker had already motivated him. That kind of temperance was really sickening to watch.
"Well, Sabrina is really strong~ Or maybe not, compared to some parts of the continent... but on this ship, she's probably the strongest," Eolande lectured while the group made their way to the lower deck and started walking through the hallways towards the galley.
"And to her, you're nothing more than a promising young Foxkin with a bright future ahead of him. Not an opponent worthy of her attention. So I don't see an issue with her whimsically letting us on, since apart from you, and obviously myself, no one else here is obscenely powerful," Eolande finished with an expression that said what she had just stated was obvious.
"I guess you're right. I never considered it from her perspective... maybe she thinks she'll get bonus points with the Crimson Foxkin Clan if she shuttles me and Breena to them?" Lone mumbled.
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A few moments later, they had reached the galley and met up with Malt and Al'ka's groups. Looking around at the other groups present, only one other had an Adventurer with the same rank as Lone, gold-silver. Everyone else was lower than that.
"I didn't think we'd meet again so soon, Lone. So your group took this quest as well?" Malt, the Wolfkin, asked with a friendly atmosphere about him.
"I too, am rather surprised at this, Lone. Did you not just create your group a few days ago? What compelled you to take such a potentially demanding quest like this one?" Al'ka, the High Elf added.
Currently, the three of them were sat around a table while their group members talked to each other, rested or got some food. It was a somewhat informal meeting of the three groups' leaders.
"Mmm, I have a bit of business with the Crimson Foxkin Clan, so this trading convey was a good opportunity to head there while also earning some coin at the same time," Lone lightly explained while skewing the truth. he felt like there was no need to tell them that Sabrina had decided to let his group on personally and that he hadn't taken the quest.
"Ah, so you don't plan on taking the ship back to Everlast? Are you allowed to do that? I thought the quest was to protect the ship both to the clan and back to the port of Everlast," Malt said with a confused expression on his youthful and somewhat furry face.
"Did you not look into all of the details of the quest, Wolfkin?" Al'ka asked with a slightly condescending and mocking tone. Malt blushed a little at this and turned his head to the side, clearly trying to avoid Al'ka and Lone's gazes.
"There were two options. Either escort the ship to the clan and return to Everlast or only escort to the clan. This is standard for escort missions since after all of the cargo has been successfully traded to the Foxkin, the Captain of this ship wishes to stay for at least a few days, of which some people wouldn't want to wait. So it's generally always an option to make the trip a one-way deal," Al'ka explained patiently to Malt who looked embarrassed.
'You learn something new every day, huh? Surprisingly, none of the books I've read have really covered The Adventurer's Guild all that much. I wonder if they are a somewhat new organisation on the grand scale of things?' Lone thought to himself.
Time passed idly like that for thirty or so minutes as the three talked, drank together and enjoyed themselves. Lone was surprised at how well Al'ka, a High Elf, and Malt, a somewhat rough around the edges Wolfkin, were getting along. It really put it into perspective how little the Demihumans discriminated against each other.
Lone was struggling a little bit to control his bloodlust around Malt and his friends, but he took it as another form of training. Even if he was immune to illusions, it didn't mean he couldn't be affected mentally at some points even with the help of the Darkness attribute inside of him. So training to control his bloodlust around these Wolfkin was serving as a good way to strengthen his mentality.
Lone once again returned his mind to how friendly Malt and Al'ka were being to each other despite their vastly different races, and he was aware that they could have been the few exceptions amongst their species, but it still made him smile. Even in regards to power, Al'ka wasn't looking down on Lone and Malt who were both C-rankers when compared to his B-Ranker status.
Unfortunately for Lone, his rare good mood was quickly shattered by another group of Adventurers on the same escort quest.
"Hey, hey, hey. I go to sleep for a few hours, and what do I wake up to see? A couple of wooden plates are on the same mission as me, a silver plate? Did I get on the wrong ship?" a tall and muscular Demi-Orc, a subspecies and half-Human version of the Orcs Lone had once slaughtered, loudly shouted across the galley while he stared at Eolande and Swind.