645 Chapter 645 - How many times have I said this? (1/2)
When all the ladies heard that, they found Brother Assist's suggestion to be very agreeable. How long would 250,000 gold coins last them? The ladies pondered on this from a different perspective. 250,000 gold coins can buy plenty of exquisite and gorgeous equipment!
”That is a very good idea!” Luo Luo nodded before she asked, ”Miles isn't around, though. Will he mind?”
”Of course not!” Brother Assist hastily said.
Luo Luo suspiciously turned her gaze onto Young Master Han. This guy said that they are just employees and Miles is the real boss, so everything has to go through him, but now that he isn't around, they're directly having a hand at recruitment; just what exactly is the truth to this matter?
Young Master Han was too lazy to explain himself and just continued quietly sipping his liquor. Royal God Call and War Without Wounds started fidgeting in their seats. When the two men saw Brother Assist introduce to the ladies the details of the duties in Thousand Miles Drunk's Workshop, they exchanged glances and flashed toady smiles as they came forward. ”Brother Assist, the two of us have decided to be permanent employees.”
”Permanent?” Brother Assist was surprised.
”Well… We said that we want to be temps before, right?” The two laughed dryly. ”Yeah, we suddenly realized that it's better if we work as permanent staff, instead.”
This was when Brother Assist understood. After a quick glance at the present state of affairs and learning that these ladies would be joining in, these two men evidently intended to throw in their lot like a healing salve to an open wound. However, this left Brother Assist in an awkward spot. He had sought for external staff because War Without Wounds and Royal God Call had expressed their desire to stop working before, so now that these two men were going back on their initial claims, it instead left him with too much manpower; meaning, the share of the final split would be lesser. At this rate, he could not simply just make the decisions there and then, and he figured should still ask others for their opinion: Do the others wish to save the effort and earn less or put in more hard work to earn more?
With this thought in mind, Brother Assist turned his gaze over to Southern Lone Blade and his men, seeking their thoughts on this matter. Since they were the people who were in it purely for the profits to make a living, he had already asked for their opinion on taking in more employees before he began his search to bolster their workforce.
Southern Lone Blade and the others could of course tell what had driven both men to come to such a decision, and they had no idea if they should be laughing or crying. Having two extra pairs of hands would not divide the pot up too badly, and the seven were not so petty to such a degree, so they naturally had no issues with this. Southern Lone Blade simply sent a private message to Brother Assist, ”It's up to you. None of us have any strong opinions either way.”
And so, Brother Assist was obviously not going to reject the two men's offer, but he did regard the two with open disdain as he barked, ”You're not allowed to casually back out at your whim this time!”
War Without Wounds and Royal God Call nodded vigorously before turning back to encourage Sword Demon. ”Everyone's getting back on the saddle again, and you're the only one who's still being a temp. Forget about it and just join us as well!”
Sword Demon was firm in his decision, smiling at the two without saying a word. The ladies were still around, so the two men would of course not care to continue conversing with Sword Demon, and they instantly went over to preoccupy themselves with the ladies, laughing and chatting away happily. Seeing an opening, Sword Demon faced the crowd and mentioned, ”Dusky Cloud said he's coming over to Baishi City, hoping to find a time to meet up with everyone some time tomorrow!”
”Oh, just to meet up?” Young Master Han laughed mirthlessly.
”Uhm… I didn't ask, but I reckon that's not all.” Sword Demon was honest. Nine out of ten people who had contacted them recently mostly wanted to discuss about the efficient monster grinding routines. As Dusky Cloud was the big boss of his alliance, it only made sense that he would wish to seize this opportunity to better consolidate his strength.
”We've got the time now; why don't you call him over?” Young Master Han spoke pompously. Dusky Cloud was deemed as the most indomitable guild leader in all of Parallel World presently, yet the former's tone made it sound as if the latter was no more than a delivery boy – a single call would be all it took to get that man hurrying over.
Sword Demon ignored him, turning to ask others when they would be free tomorrow.
”We've got plenty of time on our hands, but what about Fleeting Smile and his lot? We don't know when they will jump out and create havoc!” Brother Assist worriedly asked.
”They'll still have to look for us in the first place. We were too conspicuous organizing all those lessons today at the White Mill, so how could it be so coincidental for us to bump into them again?” Having plenty of experience fighting, Southern Lone Blade and his men offered this assurance.
”That's true.” Brother Assist nodded. Following along this line of thought, it meant that every time their workshop announced the next session of classes, everyone would be exposed in public, so those men would have a very easy time locating them. Just thinking about this made Brother Assist feel as if he had a fish bone stuck in his throat.
”In order for us to resolve this matter with those guys completely, we will have to first understand their actual motive. To what degree do they intend to mess around with Miles?” Southern Lone Blade wondered.
”It's unknown!” Everyone shook their heads.
”We forgot to ask No Smile that earlier. Any of you friends with that person?” Brother Assist asked around.
”Forget it. We'll just get Miles to ask Fleeting Smile himself tomorrow!” someone said.
Everyone was silent for a good moment. Just what sort of messy situation are we caught up in…
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The ladies soon left the tavern after staying for a while; some of them got ready to log out and others intended to play a little longer, ensnaring even the souls of War Without Wounds and Royal God Call away as they did; the two men voluntarily chased right after them.
Southern Lone Blade and his team had yet to recover from their losses since that episode with the Utopian Magic Staff, so they seized what time they had to grind their levels. Paddy Scent Pastures and Verdant Timber greatly admired the skill Young Master Han had demonstrated, so they enthusiastically asked him to join them in their grind. As they were all experts, everybody understood a Light Priest would be completely incapable of solo-grinding in Parallel World, and truth of this statement was all the more apparent the higher level they got. Even attempting to level through quests would be difficult, especially when many of them required players to kill monsters. It was essentially a job class that was completely dependent on partying up in groups.
No matter how transcendental a player was, there was no way they could transcend beyond their job-class limitations. These experts were thinking of this when they suddenly found themselves in tears; this was because their thoughts had involuntarily gone to Gu Fei in that moment; that person indeed possessed skills that surpassed his job-class limitations! A Mage like Gu Fei was completely illogical, yet it was in that absurdity that he showed his indomitability. As it turned out, nothing was really an absolute in this world.
Sure enough, Young Master Han was nothing so transcendental, and he depended on having a group when he grinded his levels, but while most Priests liked to stick themselves with a regular team, he often mixed about unaffiliated teams. Actually, with the skill Young Master Han possessed, there were plenty of people out there that wished to party with him, but because of how irregular the man's schedule of grind was, occasionally grinding at 8 PM, and at other times, especially around at 3 AM, not even seeing a shadow of him, how would there be any parties out there that could stand his temperamental ways? Young Master Han was not the least bit bothered by this, though, continuing to persist in his ways. After all, he was not in the least bit picky about whichever group he ended up with when he left the city gates for his daily grind.
Most players would slowly form a permanent group after playing and mixing around with these unaffiliated players over time, but for Young Master Han to still stick to these independent parties ever since the beta started up to now... While such players existed, they would rarely be Priests and would usually be people with job classes that could solo-grind. It was almost atypical to find a Light Priest in the same situation as Young Master Han.
Nowadays over by Yunduan City, by the city gates where the players would gather to form parties, there was a good number of players would recognize this indomitable king of the unaffiliated parties. As long as someone invited him to the party, this person would accept it, and the level of skill this person demonstrated was bewildering. Plenty of the permanent parties wished they did not need to bring their Priests when they saw his performance, while any party that managed to get him would always brag about it the next day. Many people wanted to nail down a schedule for when that Priest would be grinding, so that they could run into him every time they went out for their own grinding… but everybody failed. The lack of a schedule was the schedule that man followed.
Since Southern Lone Blade's team was inviting Young Master Han to grind, just at the same time that he was thinking of leveling as well, he did not see any reason to reject this offer and went along with them. Brother Assist and Sword Demon saw that everyone was leaving and did not want to be left alone, so the seven plus three men formed a ten-man party and departed to grind together.
The night passed in such a fashion. When Gu Fei came online in the morning the next day, he did not seem to be affected by that large skirmish with the ex-soldiers last night as he continued to spend his time as he usually did. He took some time to review the leveling situation with his students, only to find that everyone had already familiarized themselves with the routines, and no longer needed his tutoring. It was only when he went to complete a few 'Bounty Missions' afterward that he realized how exhilarating it had been to fight those ex-soldiers last night. Taking on the average player after that was just quite monotonous in comparison.
With a quick glance at his friends list, Gu Fei saw that none of his comrades was online, and neither was Ye Xiaowu. He took a stroll around the city out of boredom and went offline soon after.
His friends were online by the time he got online later in the afternoon. The moment he came on, he received a message from Sword Demon. Gu Fei thought that it would be information about their enemies, so he pulled up the window in his excitement, only to be notified about Dusky Cloud organizing a get-together today.
Of course, a get-together could only be hosted in a tavern, so Gu Fei listlessly made his way over to the tavern, arriving a little earlier than the stipulated time. He randomly found a table to sprawl over as he waited. Soon after, everyone entered the premises one by one. Gu Fei heard what had happened after he logged off and was slightly comforted when he found out that he had not missed anything.
”If you wanted to play still, why did you log off so early?” War Without Wounds was nonplussed.
”You're not a young lad yourself, so I'll refrain from commenting, but this is just a game. You oughta know moderation!” Gu Fei criticized War Without Wounds. Sword Demon, who was standing at the side, flushed red. He was the one out of them all that played the game most maniacally. Was his moniker as the number one gamer just for show?
Still, talking about moderation in front of such veteran gamers was no more than asking for a scolding. As everybody was regarding Gu Fei with much disdain, the tavern doors were flung wide open. Thunderous laughter drifted off from Dusky Cloud as the man greeted everyone.
Dusky Cloud had brought along plenty of comrades, and none of the experts were even certain if they had even met some of these faces before. In any case, Young Master Han and the others greeted them with a nod and a smile as they passed. All six members from Young Master's Elite were here, and since Southern Lone Blade's team of seven did not have much of a relationship with Dusky Cloud, none of them intended to come and join the fun, but because there was a good possibility they might end up discussing about the efficient monster grinding routines, Southern Lone Blade was sent to attend this gathering as a representative of the whole team.