We were in the guild again and the place was packed with people today.
Several of them called out to me when they saw me and I realised most of them were the Mercs that were involved in the raid and are here to collect their rewards.
Guess we somehow all decided to come here at the same time? What a coincidence.
We went up to one of the open counters and the receptionist nodded at us in greeting.
“Hello, I assume you are also here for your rewards for the pirate raid?”
Both Amber and I nodded.
“Perfect, let me just scan you for a moment… Ah, Miss Amber and Miss Tera, correct?”
We nodded again.
“Alright, I have your rewards here. Miss Amber took down fifteen A Class ships, four B Class ships and one C Class ship. That brings your total to two hundred and thirty five thousand for the bounty and an additional hundred thousand for the raid completion. You are also promoted to Gold rank level four. Congratulations.”
Hmm… I can’t actually tell if that’s a lot of money or not… Probably because my sense of value has been screwed after earning so many Credits so quickly and making all these high value purchases…
But judging by the lack of response from Amber’s face, I would say that that amount was probably something she had already expected.
She then tapped on her screen and I assume she was going to tell me my rewards next.
“As for Miss Tera… Oh. Hmm? That’s odd… Please wait here for a moment.”
The receptionist stood up from her seat and went to another room at the back.
Somehow I have a feeling of deja vu from that.
Amber turned to grin at me, “Wanna bet that some big shot is going to come and invite you for a talk?”
I raised an eyebrow, “Why would you say that?”
“Well, I’m already guessing that they are going to promote you at least to Gold rank, which means you’ll be jumping above silver rank entirely. Plus, most of the jobs we’ve taken so far are combat related hustles and our only escort hustle isn’t even completed yet. Even if that Captain is vouching for you, I don’t think they would let you jump so many ranks so easily without asking you some things.”
“Hmm… Well, truth be told, I was already expecting something like this anyway, so no need to bet.”
“Awww… And here I thought I could win something from you today…”
What were you even trying to win from me…
Before I could ask her, the receptionist returned with another guild staff, this one being a middle aged man with some kind of tattoo on the left half of his face while an eyepiece rested over his right eye.
“This is Miss Tera, sir.”
The man reached out his hand to me, “Miss Tera, I am Peter, the manager of this guild branch. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
I touched his hand, “Nice to meet you too. Is there something wrong?”
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He shook his head, “Not exactly, I just need to speak with you for a moment. Could you follow me for a moment?”
Amber gave me a smug look as if I didn’t guess the same thing as well.
I nodded at him and he gestured towards the side indicating where he wanted me to go.
I followed him down the hall to a sitting room at the side and he ushered both Amber and myself into the room before he entered after us.
There were two couches and a single coffee table in the middle, a pretty basic setup so I assume this room was used purely to hold meetings like this.
We sat on one of the couches while he took the other one, the man waiting for us to get comfortable before he tapped on the table.
A screen appeared in front of us and it showed my results of the raid.
“Miss Tera, first things first, you’ve taken down eight Class A ships, nine Class B ships and four Class C ships. The bounty for that totals to five hundred and seventy five thousand Credits. The military also threw in a bonus five hundred thousand Credits for your contribution to the raid which brings your total to a million and seventy five thousand Credits.”
Oh damn, that’s definitely a lot of money.
He then tapped on the screen, “You’ve also obtained more than enough points to promote you to silver rank but Captain Raymond has requested to us that you be granted the Gold Rank as soon as possible as a reward for your contribution to the raid.”
I gave him a look, “I assume you guys can’t do that? Otherwise there wouldn’t be a reason for you to take me to this room.”
He nodded slightly, “Unfortunately, yes. We can definitely streamline your promotion to Silver rank level five even, but to let you jump to Gold rank level one would be a little too much.”
I mean… It’s not like I’m in a rush to rank up anyway so I’m fine with that. Amber’s already Gold rank so we could already take missions from that rank which means there’s literally no difference to our current situation if I was Gold or Silver ranked.
I was about to tell him that I was fine with it when Amber cut in, “Alright, cut the bullshit. What do you need for her to do before you can promote her to Gold rank? You wouldn’t bring us all the way here just to tell us that, did you?”
Eh?
Peter nodded, “Yes, as I said, we cannot let you rank up all the way to Gold without at least going through a test first. If you pass the test, we would be able to convince our higher ups that you are definitely worthy of the rank up.”
I pursed my lips, “What kind of test?”
I would be so fucked if it’s some kind of written test where they expect me to answer Mercenary knowledge or some other stuff like that…
The worry must have shown on my face because Peter smiled reassuringly at me, “Don’t worry Miss Tera, we simply need you to showcase some of your skills. There just so happens to be a hustle that we need a Mercenary of Gold rank to complete and once you finish it, we will go ahead with the promotion immediately.”
Oh, if it’s something like that, I think I can do it.
He then pointedly looked in Amber’s direction, “I am also aware that Miss Amber is your companion, but for this mission you would be required to complete it alone without external help. You are free to reject it of course, and we would still promote you to Silver rank level five.”
“What is the job?” I asked.
“Nothing too big. Do you know about the Freedom Elites? They’re a gang that’s active on this station.”
I grimaced, “Yeah… I already ran into them actually… What about it?”
He then tapped on the table again and it showed a picture of some kind of warehouse and a map of where the warehouse was located within the station.
“There’s a group of these people that have set up base in this warehouse in particular and there’s a hustle related to them. Specifically, they managed to steal a crate that belongs to the UTSN that contains several weapons that they are planning to use against another gang. The good news is that the crate is locked and they are unable to open it, the bad news is that they are trying to break it open and the UTSN would like to retrieve the crate before it’s broken into.”
I frowned, “Am I supposed to sneak inside and get this box out or something?”
He gave me a look, “There’s no specifics as to how you secure the package. The group has already been given the ‘eliminate on sight’ status so if you were to go in and kill all of them to secure the package, there would be no problems as well. But if you would rather sneak in there and bring it out, that would also be acceptable too.”
Oh, that’s good. I was worried that this would be a stealth mission and that would be quite bothersome.
I mean… My main weapon is a shotgun and the only ‘silenced’ weapon I have is the knife I got earlier which I intend to use for cooking purposes…
“How many thugs are there?” I asked.
“Initial reports show that there should be no less than five and no more than ten inside.”
That’s… A number I can deal with I suppose.
Peter then steepled his hand in front of him, “What do you think, Miss Tera? Would you accept this job?”
I thought about it for a moment before nodding at him, “I’ll take it.”
I mean, I’ve already gone this far right? Might as well just get this done and over with.