Chapter 204: Meeting of The Elites (1/2)
The sun had not yet risen, but there were already quite a number of Hunters gathered in the Lord Aur castle's courtyard. The last people to arrive were Berot and the members of Dominion, for a total of 21 people. All of the people gathered for this quest were high-ranking Hunters within Winged city and even the entirety of the Sentro region.
Most teams kept a fixed distance from the others, but there were a few that were acquainted with others and thus were sticking together. Although they had all been hired to do the same job and would have to work together at some point in time. Their pride as high rankers made them unable to make the first move.
As Dominion entered the courtyard, every single eye inside turned to face them. Their scrutinizing gazes contained quite a lot of pressure and weaker Hunters would've run away by now.
”Ah, there's a few familiar faces. I guess that's expected when you hire almost all the highest-ranking Hunters around Huh. Although I don't see the Dark Wizard though.”
”Indeed... it would seem that Mr. Kline's party had chosen not to accept this quest. Still, there are a lot of rarely seen Hunters around today. Goes to show the pressure the city had placed on the Guild.”
”Or perhaps the Guild also had its own agenda in this. I personally didn't expect to see the famous Spirit Mage Lady Bell and her Knell haze group here today.”
”Let's leave that aside for now; since lady Bell is there, the ones over there should be the other team leaders, right?”
Almost everyone present was divided into their teams, and among them, a group of four people was discussing in the center of the courtyard.
”Alright, it seems like those are only the party leaders so I'll go over to say hi. You guys try and get along with the others okay.”
”…Ah! Ugh, is that lady from—? Don't tell me those crafty pigs from Red Ruby are here too...? Why the heck would they even hire them. They're supposed to be information specialist but all their information are always wrong or incomplete. Incompetent idiots.”
”I'm not sure that's the case Eliss. They might be doing it on purpose you know.”
”Why the fuck will they do that. Isn't selling wrong information damaging to their reputation.”
”Yes, selling wrong information would be. But none of the information they've sold so far is wrong though. They are just incomplete and missing certain details. They would then later sell the more complete information for an even greater price than it's worth.”
”Geez, those vicious bastards.”
”—I don't like them either.”
”Ah, it doesn't matter if you like them or not, just remember we're supposed to work together as a team for this mission so try and tolerate them. Besides, I don't see anyone else from the group so maybe she's alone this time. Don't say anything stupid though.”
”Are you actually calling me stupid right now?” An annoyed look was plastered on Eliss face as she glared daggers at Abel.
”Come on guys, you're going to ruin our impeccable reputation.” Saying that Berot walked in between the pair and smiled mischievously.
”…Hey, I'm going over to say hi to Bell. Don't give them a reason to mock me. We're one of the strongest parties in here if not the strongest. So let's not give them a reason to look down on us.”
”Fine fine, just go.”
”Work hard, leader.”
After hearing Lyka cheer him on, Berot deliberately scrunched up his face and grumbled, ”for me to be the voice of reason. Those two must be really confident today.” He then walked to the group of four standing in a circle in the center of the courtyard.
The first to greet Berot as he walked over was a female Tritanium ranked Hunter he was acquainted with.
She was an attractive middle-aged lady with long single-braided brown hair and beautiful brown eyes that seems to be able to see through everything. She was about the same height as Berot and wore a raven black cloak with blue threads designing it and held and long wooden staff that was about half an inch shorter than her.
She was his acquaintance who was also well known as a very powerful spirit mage, named Bell. As she greeted him, the other three turned to observe him. While he had never met them before, he was fairly aware of who they were.
Standing next to Bell was a Duranium ranked Hunter in a suit of Dark Blue-colored full plate armor. Due to the strange structure of the plates and the wide shape of his pauldrons, he did not look like a typical humanoid creature but that off a monster standing on two legs.
Two large tusks stuck straight out of his helmet, and from his exposed green skin, one could surmise what race he was. Looking oddly similar to the evolved troll Kazko, one would be mistaken if they considered him a troll as there was a large disparity in their heights. Instead, it was Kazko who looked similar to his race after his evolution.
His build was that of a warrior and he wields a large war hammer and a shied was strapped on his back.
”Oh Berot, I heard you returned yesterday. I guess you accepted this request as well.” Bell said in an oddly amused tone.
”Well honestly I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter but the terms of the job seem favorable this time.”
”—And if it isn't the strongest mage in Sentro. I would this types of jobs would be beneath you.”
”Now why would you think that Vrutha the brute. Why are you here?”
Interrupting his conversation with Bell was the Orc, Vrutha the Brute. Leader of a Duranium ranked Hunter team called, Battle Lords.
”What do you mean why am I here. For the battle of course. That what we orcs live for.”
Ignoring the brute for a moment. Berot waved to the other two people. His attitude was neither polite nor dignified but they didn't mind. This was because they did not care much about one's status, not their attitude only their strength and Berot was definitely not weak.
Taking a look at the groups behind Bell and Vrutha. Berot counted their numbers to be a total of 17. Bell's group was a party of only women, most of which were either lesser demons or Demi humans. The number nine and including her would make them an even Ten.
Vrutha group were four strong-looking orcs like himself and if you included him, that would make them five. The only remaining two seem to have accepted the quest on as solo Hunters but as they were both Tritanium rank as him, they must be really confident of their strength.
However, Berot had never seen these two fight before so he couldn't be sure but he trusted the Hunter guild ranking system as it wasn't flawed enough to rank Hunters based on their magic potential alone.
”So Bell, you're friends with Kline right?”