novelraw Chapter 51: Mercenary Guild
Chapter 51: Mercenary Guild
The Mercenary Guild was a government ran establishment and its full name was ’The Human Alliance Mercenary Guild.’
The guild was quite lax with its members, and its purpose was simple.
For a commission, it acted as a liaison between mercenaries and contractors, helping keep things civil and act as a trustworthy middleman.
From what Talia could tell from the information she had, the guild was created to help systematically train people for the war against demons.
One of the major reasons she thought this was because one of the largest mission contractors was the government itself.
They were trained on their own dime and if they were lucky enough to breakthrough to the Beta Rank, they were usually automatically drafted into the Human Alliance Army as foot soldiers.
It might not seem like much until you realise that this was happening in a million towns all over Human Alliance territory.
Even if only one percent of let say one million level 3 made it to Level 4 every year that was still ten thousand new bloods that they could use in the military.
And with the commission charged as well as the other businesses such as buying and selling common loots from adventures and many more, carried out by the mercenary guild it was basically self-sustaining and most likely profitable.
Although the guild was pretty lax, she still needed certain reputation and documents to set up missions.
That was where her father came into the picture. Now that they no longer needed to hide their location, they could use some of her father’s past documentation to make things easier for themselves.
Their hovercraft reached the most populated part of town, where the Mercenary Guild was located.
The building stood close to the general market but far enough from the centre that unawakened people did not wander into its path.
Working with the guild was more appealing to most regular awakened compared to working with the town government or joining clans and other powers.
It was also helpful to people without talent or prospects who still wanted to make a living from their path.
Once they stepped out of their hovercraft, they began drawing attention, after all, they looked good especially with their new armour.
Jim broke away from his children and went to secure the off-road vehicles for their journey that Lily had confirmed that she booked them.
While using a hovercraft for an outside journey might seem good in theory, it was not very practical.
Hovering on uneven ground was a bad idea and there were too many ways things could go wrong unless a spacecraft was in use.
Beasts could attack and launch you into the sky or the hovercraft could be destroyed because of its low durability... and these were just the most common ones.
Talia and Roden stepped into the Mercenary headquarters everyone inside seemed to be minding their own business.
Just like the rest of the town, the building was a safe zone, but far stricter than in the town with surveillance everywhere.
Ranging from cameras in the corners to sensors on the walls and guards that kept an eye on everything ready to intervene at the first sign of trouble.
Talia walked through the lavish building and looked around, she saw a spacious hall with tables and chairs, cubicles, and private rooms.
Many mercenaries were discussing their missions while others were just busy with paperwork or waiting for their turn at the counter or just having fun.
Her eyes scanned the hall, searching for the room she had booked for their meeting until she spotted the number fourteen on a wooden door near the back.
She nodded in that direction before heading there with her brother following closely behind her.
She opened the door and twenty-nine people sat in the room, waiting for them.
Some were men while others were women and all of them looked rough without exemption... It was so obvious that they were the kind of people that had seen too many bad days.
After all, only desperate people would accept a mission with barely any details or information.
Talia took a quick look around and nodded. "Good," she said. "Looks like everyone is on time."
Someone tried to interrupt her, but she cut them off with a raised hand.
"I will keep this short and simple... We are going out into the forest, toward the mountain ranges."
She paused to let that sink in.
"Like agreed, your payment will be one low-grade mana stone per day, and the mission will last for a maximum of one week."
"However, the journey will take several days, but do not worry the trip’s payment is also covered, and supplies will be provided."
She looked at each face in the room.
"We will be leaving now. Any questions?"
A man in the back raised his hand, he was a middle-aged man with scar on his cheek. On a closer look it looked like he was missing a finger on his left hand.
"You never mentioned we would be going that deep into the forest especially close to mountain range," he said. "What if we get attacked?"
Talia did not hesitate. "Do not worry, protection is provided and if you want to leave, feel free no one will stop you."
She let the words hang in the air for a few seconds, but no one moved.
"Your only job is to search the mountain for..." She paused for a moment before changing the words she was going to say. "You will be given more information on the site."
The people in the room stared at each other and some of them shrugged.
It was not like they had much choice anyway, the job seemed easy enough and the pay was good.
They all had suspicions about this entire thing, but they were not too scared and the worse that could happen was death anyway not to mention the reason they all used the Mercenary Guild was because of the protection it offered.
If something went wrong, the guild would step in... hopefully.
They asked a few more questions but nothing important.
Talia nodded. "In that case, let us go. Transportation is ready and I hope to reach the location today."
They all stood up and followed Talia and Roden out of the room.
As they walked through the hall, one of the older mercenaries stepped forward. He was a big man with broad shoulders and grey beards.
He stretched out his hand toward Roden. "Hey buddy," he said. "How are you doing?"
Roden glanced down at the outstretched hand and his face did not change but a frown appeared on his brow.
"Keep your hands to yourself," he said. "and I am not your buddy."
The man blinked and pulled his hand back slowly.
He stepped away and returned to his group of friends, from the way Roden dressed, the man had thought he was also a mercenary and he hope to gain some information into the mission they were going on since he seemed to have a close relationship to the boss.
That did not seem to be the case.
They followed the siblings out of the building where Jim was waiting for them at the curb.
He stood with his arms crossed, watching the street and when he saw them, he pushed off the wall and led them toward the group of off-road trucks.
The trucks were large with green paint and thick tires; there were metal grilles over the headlights giving them a rugged appearance.
Many of the mercenaries already had experience driving so they did not need to hire more drivers.
Talia told them to spread out among the trucks before climbing into the lead vehicle herself sitting right beside her father while her brother took the wheel.
They got on the road and immediately began moving.
The trucks rumbled through the town gates and onto the dirt path and beyond after they did their clearance.