Chapter 82 - Amy’s Past (1/2)

Once Tsutomu came to join the group, Camille started the meeting off by confirming everyone’s abilities. Most of the twenty-five Guild Staff Members gathered here were at the high level of seventy, and although they were not as well-known as Garm and Amy, they were all very capable.

As for their Job types, most of them were Attackers, numbering at fifteen; of the remaining, six were Tanks and four were Healers. Tsutomu looked at all their status ratings, focusing especially on their unique skills, and then proceeded to talk with every one of them.

“Long time no see, Mister Tsutomu,” the Deputy Guild Master greeted, happily puffing up his plump cheeks and exuding the friendly aura he had always had. He had joined the group as well, having reached level 70 in his Job as a Spiritualist.

“Ohh! Long time no see, indeed, sir!”

By the time Tsutomu was done confirming everyone’s skills and status ratings, the other Clans were done with their meetings as well; they decided then that it was time to wrap up for the day, what with it being almost nighttime. All the organization representatives were going to have another meeting shortly, however, so Camille left her group and headed for the city rulers’ residence.

As Tsutomu was wondering what to do now, Amy invited him to a dinner gathering of Guild members participating in the Stampede. They entered a nearby tavern, the inside of which was empty due to the Stampede, and were easily let in.

At first, everyone sat down and ate and drank in a well-ordered manner, but as the drinks started making the rounds, everyone started to move around as they pleased.

The receptionist with the buzz cut walked over to Tsutomu’s seat and talked to him, “You know, Tsutomu, that lady’s been real grumpy because you kept lining up for me! Hah!”

“I’m not grumpy.” The receptionist lady, sitting diagonally in front of them, chugged her drink down while keeping a perfectly straight face.

“Ahaha…”

Tsutomu had been quite surprised to hear that the lady was a level 70 Gray Mage, having thought that she, and by extension the other receptionist, were regular full-time office workers.

The Gray Mage Job’s functionality was somewhere in the middle between White and Black Mages, and was often regarded as a master of none. It was not completely written off, however, thanks to its specialty skill that copied another skill used by their allies, enabling them to use it once. Additionally, they had access to a great variety of attacking elements through the common magic spells and Holy-elemental attacks, enabling them to easily exploit monsters’ weaknesses.

In addition to the Gray Mage, there were many Guild Staff Members who had reached level 70 with their rarer, less popular Jobs such as Sorcerer, Channeler, Spiritualist, Hunter, and Spellblader. Some were of the more sough-after Jobs such as Swordfighter and Boxer, of course, but the minor Jobs made up half of them.

As such, the Guild was home to many individuals who could be considered top of the line despite their suboptimal Jobs. Tsutomu found it interesting to hear all their stories and find out what was different from the game, but the one he was most curious about was the Channeler.

The Channeler Job, being closely associated in functionality to White Mages, had always been a subject of interest for him. Although he had talked with one during the gathering earlier, it was not enough to satisfy his curiosity. So now, he found himself approaching the person in question — a Channeler woman — once again, but he came off as too insistent and passionate, complete with heavy breathing, that the woman tried to distance herself from him.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how do you maintain your channeling effects? I’m quite curious, you see, seeing that their chanting times seem so long and all…”

“……”

The more Tsutomu asked, the more the Channer backed away. She had always been introverted and unconfident in her looks, and it had been a long time since she had to interact with an assertive man.

“C’mon, Tsutomu! Stop bullying her!” Amy scolded Tsutomu upon seeing the scene, putting herself between him and the Channeler.

“Uh, I didn’t mean to do that…” Tsutomu, putting up no resistance in the first place, was then promptly shoved away.

Seeing no use in staying around, Tsutomu then went back to his previous seat and started talking to some other people. He had some extent of technical knowledge on Spellbladers’ budget management and Spiritualists’ skill loops, so he brought those topics up as some of the Guild staff moved over to his table.

They were all interested in Tsutomu, what with him having partied up with Amy, and with the latter declaring that she would join his Clan, no less. That was the actual reason they gathered around.

“So, Tsutomu, how’d you force Amy to group up with you?” The receptionist lady, sitting opposite to him, asked with a mischievous smirk.

“Wording! And I didn’t force her to do anything!”

Just as Tsutomu was about to explain, the receptionist lady chugged down the wine from her glass and chuckled.

“If you told me six months ago that she’d joined a party, I wouldn’t have believed it, you know…”

“Huh, really?”

“What, you haven’t heard? She was pretty aggressively against it back in the day… and even had a bias against Explorers who worked in groups, you see?” The receptionist sighed and tipped her empty glass. Tsutomu promptly took a wine bottle and poured it into the glass, while the receptionist lady proceeded to continue. “So the thing is that her Clan disbanded after failing to win against the Shell Crab, but the way they did it was… not good. It was just a sham, so to speak.”

“A sham? How so?”

“Long story short, the old Clan members went and created a new Clan while leaving Amy out of it. When she found out, well… she got REALLY violent with them. Right in the Guild building, no less. Things were pretty messy after that.”

“Whoa, that never crossed my mind…” Tsutomu nodded in understanding, himself having gotten used to such Clan conflicts from his time with Live Dungeon.

The receptionist lady moved closer and whispered,

“I know, right? That’s why I thought you’d threatened her, as those articles said… but those turned out to be fake. So what’d you do to her, exactly?.”

“Well… I didn’t do anything special, really. We just went and won a fight against the Shell Crab, that’s it.”

“Don’t lie to me! Come on, out with it! How’d you force her to join you!? C’mon!”

“He didn’t force me to do anything!”

“Ouch!”

Amy karate-chopped the receptionist lady’s head from behind, causing the latter to clutch her head in pain. She did not stop there, however, continuing to pound her fists on the receptionist’s head, causing the latter to writhe in pain. Tsutomu, seeing that Amy was probably drunk, left the scene while she still was preoccupied.

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