I pushed the door to the Guild open, stepping inside expectantly.

I came here today especially to take the quest to participate in the Dungeon clearing the principal had posted.

Following me were Katsuki and Odeta, both of them who would also be accompanying me to explore the Dungeon.

Well… I say explore but really we're just going to try and rush through the Dungeon as fast as possible.

Delmare wanted to follow me as well but unfortunately, she was not ready to take the test to become a Guild member yet. She could definitely pass the test if she were to use her Siren magic but recently it seems like she was of the opinion that using it to 'cause distress' was not something she wanted to do.

Lisa also wasn't able to follow us since she still had her duties as a teacher and she was quite upset about it. Good thing she was happy to receive a kiss as compensation for that.

Oh, and we're in the Guild that was located in the upper district instead of the lower one since it was closer, not the one in the middle district.

I found the quest board easily enough since I've been here before. Not to mention the fact that there was already a large group of people already there looking at it as well.

Looking around the board, I found the quest in question at the very top of the board where all the D ranked quests were.

'Dungeoneers needed to clear monsters at Lecharouc Aerialla Academy's Dungeon. Will pay 50% more than the market price for Mana Crystals gained from the Dungeon. Minimum of Rank E to participate.'

Oh~ The monetary rewards aren't so bad either.

I'm guessing they're paying by counting the Mana Crystals since they wanted to prioritise the culling of the higher ranked monsters, since the lower ranked monsters' Mana Crystals would not sell for much.

I'd bet there would still be some parties who would be farming the weaker ones despite that.

I also noticed an extra sign taped by the side of the request, 'No limit to takers, head to counter to express interest and register.'

Oh, so that's what happens when the quest isn't limited to just one party taking care of it.

There were a couple of parties already standing at the counter so I led my own party towards one of the other open counters to register ourselves to the Quest.

The male Mahun behind the counter inclined his head when he saw me, "Good day to you, milady. Is there anything that I could do for you?"

"Yep! We would like to participate in the Dungeon clearing quest at Aerialla Academy!"

"Certainly, please present your Guild cards to me so that I could register that quest to be under your party."

All three of us pulled out our Guild cards that we handed over to the staff member.

He started to scan through them before he paused for a moment and turned back to us, "You are aware that the Dungeon is now classified as a D rank, right?"

"Yes, we are aware of that," I assured him.

"Mmm… Very well…" He nodded, probably needing to warn lower ranked parties like mine in case we were thinking the Dungeon was still F ranked.

Once he knew we were already aware of it, he proceeded to start the process of registering us with peak efficiency.

While he was doing that, a group of six people came to the counter beside ours.

"The Aerialla Dungeon quest," The leader of the party told the Guild staff curtly before throwing his party's Guild cards on the counter for the staff to take.

The Guild staff merely thanked him before starting to process the quest to be recorded to their cards, not even bothered by the guy's attitude.

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"Miss Aster, it is done. Please be careful when you are exploring the dungeons in Aerialla Academy," Our Guild staff reminded us while passing back our Guild cards.

I reached out my hand to take it from him when a snort came from the side, "I can't believe some kids would also be allowed to take this quest. The Guild standards have really dropped huh?"

No doubt he was referring to us when he said that and sure enough, when I turned to look at them, they were all giving me the stink eye.

I did not feel the need to respond to them so I just went ahead to pick up our Guild cards before turning to leave.

However, those guys were obviously trying to look for trouble since they moved to block my path while sneering at us.

"Hey, didn't your mommy teach you all some manners? You dare ignore your betters like that?" The leader growled.

I pretended to look around before turning back to face him, "My apologies, but I don't see anyone who is better than us around here? Maybe if they are willing to show themselves, I might just say hi?"

Of course that did not please him to hear in the slightest and he tried to intimidate me by cracking his knuckles while glaring at me.

That threat was significantly lessened when Odeta also started to crack her own knuckles beside me, the Amrap being a good head taller than the leader which really just made it look more hilarious.

He redirected his glare to Odeta, as though feeling annoyed that she would even dare to try and threaten him the exact same way that he was doing to me.

"What are you looking at, Amrap? You looking for a fight?"

Odeta blinked at him before turning to me, "Sister Aster, is he challenging me to a fight?"

Before I could answer, the guy took a swing at Odeta, hitting her in the abdomen.

I expected Odeta to tank the hit but surprisingly, she actually bent over from the impact meaning this guy actually has some impressive stats.

[Name: Danio Wess

Title: The D Ranked Noble, Good For Nothing, Noble Failure, Don't Talk About My Family Danio

Race: Mahun

Gender: Male

Current Mood: Furious

Stats:

390 Strength

120 Dexterity

280 Endurance

15 Magic

Skills:

Noble Etiquette (Tier 1), Leadership (Tier 2), Tracking (Tier 1), Cleaning (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier 2), Shield Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 2))]

Oh wow, that's really unexpected.

I say that because he still has a lean frame that makes him look like a sprinter rather than some bodybuilder with those stats. I'd thought that anyone that has above a hundred in their strength stat would look bulky and muscular?

What did he do to get this strong?

I thought maybe it had something to do with magic but his magic stats weren't that high either? I'm also going to assume that he was a D ranked Dungeoneer so are his stats normal for someone of that rank?

In that case… Just how high up are the people in the higher ranks? Are they also in the thousands?

Damn, that made me wonder just how weak I might be as compared to all those people…

Whoops, I got distracted here, Odeta just got punched by that guy after all.

Even though Odeta bent over from the punch, she was not that hurt from it and was more surprised than anything else.

That Danio guy tried to follow up with an uppercut to her chin but she caught it in her hand and pulled it back, causing him to stumble forward towards her.

She then slammed her head down on the guy's nose and there was a resounding 'crack' as his nose broke before he fell down hard on the floor.

Odeta held back properly so he wasn't knocked out and was just barely conscious enough to know that he was in pain.

"Auugghhh… My… My head… What… What happened?"

The rest of his party immediately drew their weapons upon seeing their leader down on the ground and were waving it at Odeta threateningly.

I was about to step in when a rather familiar voice came unexpectedly, "What is going on here?"

All of us turned to see Sebastian standing there behind the Guild counter, his face impassive as he laid an accusatory glare at the remaining party of five opposite us.

"She… She attacked our leader unprovoked!!" One of them shouted.

Wow… You have some guts lying in front of so many witnesses… Even if I were to count us out, there's still the Guild staff and the other Guild members around who saw that your leader threw the first punch though.

Sebastian turned to me, "Is that true?"

The fact that he did not call me by name meant that he wanted us to act as though we don't know each other which suited me just fine.

I shook my head, "Not at all, that guy threw the first punch and wanted to continue attacking so she retaliated and subdued him. If you don't believe us, you can ask the Guild staff and the others, they saw it too."

Sebastian turned his gaze to the man who had been processing our request and he quickly nodded to show what I said was true.

He made a low grunt, "Very well. Would having to pay a fine be enough as punishment for you, my Lady?"

Their leader recovered enough to gasp, "You're a noble?!"

Ah, that explains the punishment. I had been wondering why there was even a need to pay a fine since I've seen scenes of Dungeoneers and Mercenaries fighting inside the Guild but I guess this place catered to nobility so there were stricter rules in place.

I nodded, "I'm ok with that."

Sebastian nodded, "Very well. Log them and have them pay one small silver coin each," Sebastian instructed the Guild staff who had been processing their quest before leaving.

Damn, that's like a hundred Creas just for starting a fight…

The three of us also decided to leave while ignoring the glares from them since we were also finished with our business.

Alright! I'm now taking bets! Who wants to bet that these people will try to look for us in the Dungeon and cause trouble with us?

Any takers?