Ryuji could find no real reason to object to the terms except one. The only thing that he could see as a problem with the arrangement was that he would be in a party of three where he was the only male and he was worried that Karen might be upset with him over it. He gritted his teeth and got to his feet in determination. He would have to live with the consequences, even if it did hinder their relationship because it would keep her safe from him at his worst. At least he hoped it would.
With a plan set, the three of them chatted about what type of work each of them did or in Ryuji’s case, what type of magic he had learned. The Beautiful dark-elf, Miyako, explained her work with the mercenary’s guild. “I just do the standard job of killing monsters and menaces. Simple stuff on my level like a few goblins or wolves. Although, I did do one quest for a few wolves and it ended up being a whole pack. That one paid really well but I got sick after that and couldn’t work for a while.”
She then got a very depressed look and he almost wanted to give her a hug when her ears actually drooped. He wondered briefly if his own ears drooped like that when he was depressed. “I just wish I were good enough to advance my ranks and tiers. Unfortunately, not everyone has the skill to just fly through every quest assignment. Sorry, let me see, where to start. Well since I already mentioned it, every member of the mercenary’s guild is given quests and they have to complete them to the standards of the guild to advance.”
Kyarako chipped in with her whiskers twitching happily. “In order to advance in the guild, a mercenary has to take on one quest assignment per eightday, unless they’re still out on a quest. Sometimes an assignment takes longer than others and the guild won’t hold that against you. In fact, if you can show that the issuer of the quest knew that the quest was going to take that long before they posted it, they often have to pay you more and get sanctioned by the guild for it.”
Miyako shot the orange, black, and white cat beastfolk a look of annoyance at being interrupted. She could tell that the other woman was interested in this guy as much as she was and put extra vitriol into her glare. She was incensed to note that it was promptly ignored and continued her explanation with more determination.
Miyako put on her best scholarly tone as she vied for his attention. “Advancement of any guild member is by tier and each tier had eight ranks. I myself happen to be tier two. *She said the last in an almost haughty voice but then looked down sullenly* But it’s not that great because I’m only a rank seven in the second tier though.”
Ryuji got a very puzzled look. He was trying to figure out how that was bad and Kyarako, who was watching his face instead of studying her shoes, clarified for him. “The tiers go up in number the higher you ascend in the guild. However, the ranks per tier start at eight and go down to one. So, you want to get lower in rank to get higher in tier. I’m only a tier one but I’m a rank one.”
“Hunters almost never get to go beyond tier one because advancing from one tier to the next requires a test of some kind. For mercenaries who kill monsters, it’s easy. The guild just assigns them a monster that’s harder than what they are used to facing and if they can defeat it they go up to the next tier and start over at eighth rank. Hunters have a harder time though because there really aren’t many people who ask for harder game to be hunted. It’s always rabbits, deer, or hogs. Nobody here seems to eat anything else.”
Miyako had a pensive look on her face as she spoke up. “I had no idea it was so hard for hunters to advance. I’ve been a mercenary for five years but I just keep messing up. That’s why I can’t advance very fast. I would probably be a good bit farther along if I had been in a party. I just don’t really trust most of the people who sign up as mercenaries. When you consider that most mercenaries are men, there aren’t very many chances to party up unless you are prepared to indulge the whims of the men and I won’t. Sorry for going on and on about my problems. So how long have you been a hunter?”
Kyarako stopped and visibly had to think her way to the answer. “Eight, I was eight so that means… I guess it’s been eight years I’ve been hunting for the guild. I went out with my mother before that but she… She went out on a quest one day while I was watching my little sister and didn’t come back. So, eight years.”
Miyako had that deer in the spotlight look but Kyarako didn’t seem to notice and just continued. “By this time, I would like to have had my sister out hunting with me. I can’t take her out of the city, however. She was born frail and gets sick far too easily. I’ve been worried that either she or my grandmother would get sick one day and not recover. It’s not like I could afford a priest to heal either of them if that happened. All the times my little sister, Mankusu, got sick the last time, all we could do was give her medicinal herbs and warm broth while praying that she would live through it. Because of all the times she’s been sick, she looks like she’s only five even though she’ll be twelve when summer comes around fully.”
Ryuji had heard enough that he was convinced. These women needed his help and he would be there to provide it. “If your sister gets sick again, I’ll pay for a priest to heal her, your grandmother too of course! I can certainly afford to keep my teammates families healthy. I’m also going to make it so the living conditions are a lot better for everybody in the northern district. I plan to make it so this city doesn’t have any slums nor anybody who would live in them. I’m going to build better housing there and start a number of businesses to keep everyone there employed.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Kyarako got a wistful look on her face and her ears began to flick. “I hope we can get successful enough that you can afford to do that. I know a lot of people that quest for things but most of the time it’s just for themselves and their own gains. It would be great if everybody had goals like that to go questing for.”
Ryuji chuckled a bit and shook his head while walking. “I think you’re misunderstanding something. I’m going to become a mercenary because I want to get stronger and have more practice using magic. I’m going to do the remodeling of the northern slum district and start the other businesses whether I get into the mercenary’s guild this time or have to keep waiting. I already have fifteen businesses that I either run or am partnered with.”
Both of the women stopped and stared at him. Ryuji noticed a few steps later that they had stopped and turned around looking between the two bewildered women. He had to laugh a bit at the faces they were making. “I’m not broke, no. I have a gift with money but I won’t let that define who I am. I can still do more… No, I will do more with my life that sit in a big pile of money and lord over everyone else.”
Kyarako seemed to be on the verge of some revelation but then Miyako broke the silence. “So, the wizarding thing was just you paying for lessons? I can’t believe that stubborn old… Raugh!”
Ryuji shook his head and turned around. When he started walking again the other two ran up to keep abreast of him. “No, you have him wrong there. I almost made that mistake and Dorn chewed me out for thinking I could buy my way into an apprenticeship. I had to earn that with what I knew and it was, fortunately, enough to impress him. I did get a promise from him that once my apprenticeship is up that he’ll seriously test the people who come to him asking for an apprenticeship from now on.”
Miyako just about had a heart attack on the spot. That meant that she only needed to find out what kind of information was important to become a wizard and then wait the year or three it would take him to graduate from his apprenticeship and she could apply. By that time, she hoped that Dorn would have grown accustomed to seeing her around and maybe even let her sit in on some of Ryuji’s lessons so she could slide into the apprentice position smoothly.
With a huge smile she declared her intent. “I’ve wanted to get an apprenticeship from him for about three years now. I can wait another three years if that’s what it takes.”
Ryuji scrunched his brow in confusion and could feel his ears doing something. “Why would you wait three years? He’ll take on an apprentice even if they can’t afford their supplies. I just cleared that mistake up the other day. I thought I had to wait for his permission and he thought I couldn’t afford them so we were both waiting on the other. I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to take you on when I finish my apprenticeship in a couple eightdays. He might not have the books and supplies built back up but it might be a little while before you can use them anyway.”
When his words finally registered, Miyako was almost certain that she had a heart attack. “H-How long did you say again? You just said you were going to finish your apprenticeship, right? How long did you say?”
Kyarako looked at her with confusion written all over her face. “He said it would be a couple of eightdays. Why, is that a long time?”
Miyako looked at the two incredulously before answering in a shriek. “No, that’s not a long time! That’s a ridiculously short time! There is no way that you can finish an apprenticeship in that amount of time! You only became Dorn’s apprentice a few eightdays ago, right? You do know it takes years to get good enough at controlling magic to cast spells, right?”
Ryuji shook his head and chuckled again before continuing. “I thought you knew from your statement about wind magic. I can already cast spells. I can cast far more than wind spells too. I’m working on getting all of my glyphs down so I can train in the second and third-tier spells and beyond. I’m also studying the materials I bought on enchanting glyphs and summoning glyphs. I may work on my enchanting a bit more than my casting but I’ll probably leave the summoning to you. Also, you do know that Dorn is pretty terrible at summoning, right? I mean he summoned a rabbit to show it to me and the thing pretty well trashed his shop.”
This time both women were left pretty much speechless. Miyako was having to try to force her mind through a reset due to overload. Kyarako was a bit better off but even she was suddenly having a realization. The party she was about to join would be among the more powerful in the entire guild. Both women had assumed that the guy, casually commenting on his ridiculous magical aptitude in front of them, would be using the sword at his hip to join their party. Instead, it became obvious that he intended to join the guild using magic as his weapon of choice!
Only a small number of mages joined the mercenary’s guild and they were usually those with personalities that made them unsuitable for the warfront. Even then, the parties that formed around such people tended to be incredibly powerful. The people who grouped around them tended to have to fan their egos to keep the party together or worse. How had they managed to luck into meeting a guy like this? How had they managed to luck into forming a party with one of the only decent wizards in the city or maybe even the country?
All musings were cut short however because they were in front of the mercenary’s guild now. In spite of having a thousand questions, neither of the women voiced any. In some part of each of their brains, they were suddenly afraid that someone here at the guild would swoop in and take the mage out of their party right in front of them like some bird of prey striking its kill from out of nowhere.