Traveling Through The Series

Ryan was just sitting there with Makalov at the bar table, waiting for the mercenary leader to come. It had already been a couple of minutes already and he still had not arrived. Although he did not know how big Luria was, it should not take more than a few tens of minutes to go from one end of the city to the other.

After a moment, a thought entered Ryan's mind and he looked back to the place where he was sitting before with the others. He sighed after seeing that no one was there anymore.

Ryan: 'And I thought that he was actually a pretty smart and decent guy, but it turns out I was overestimating him.'

He got up from his seat.

Ryan: "Hey, I'm going back to my room to sleep. Try not to drink so much, you have to wake up in the morning."

Makalov: "No promises there."

Ryan smiled and started to walk away, but said something for insurance.

Ryan: "Bartender, any more drinks are now on him."

He could hear Makalov weeping again as he was walking upstairs.

Arriving on the second floor, Ryan made sure that his footsteps were completely silent. This was very simple with the help from both his wind magic and his control over his strength.

When he reached the door to his room, he was able to notice that someone tampered with the lock. Ryan signed again and opened the door to find that all of his stuff was gone.

Leaving his room, he then went to another room, specifically the one where the exhausted cleric was staying in. After quietly forcing the door open, he unsurprisingly noticed that there was also no one here either.

Ryan: "Well, I guess this settles it, those guys definitely are better suited to be thieves and bandits rather than mercenaries."

Although he was sort of praising them, he was a bit annoyed about how they easily stole his things without him noticing till it was too late. While they were noisy, rude, and loud, it turns out that they also had light steps and fingers.

Ryan: "From now on, I need to remind myself to never underestimate anyone without spending more than a few days with them."

Walking toward the window in the room, Ryan opened it and jumped outside. He landed on a nearby roof and started sprinting around the city.

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In a rundown house in the poorer section of the town, one man was waiting patiently on a chair. This man was obviously the leader of the mercenaries that had come to this place after turning in the task.

Mercenary Leader: "What's taking them so long? With the four of them, they should've been here by now."

As he was thinking this, he was interrupted by four other men carrying pouches over their shoulders.

Myrmidon Mercenary: "Sorry we're late, these things were heavier than we thought. That guy was loaded."

The cleric was panting and dropped to the floor.

Cleric Mercenary: "They wouldn't even let me rest up that much."

The group ignored the sleepy and tired man.

Mercenary Leader: "And here I thought you guys were taking your time drinking. You guys sure that you weren't followed? And where's Makalov?"

Knight Mercenary: "Didn't we agree last time that we were going to let him go soon? I just we just did that. Don't worry about that guy anymore, at least he was somewhat useful as a distraction before we dumped him."

Lance Mercenary: "Yea. And don't worry about us being followed, this isn't the first time we've done this remember? Plus, he wouldn't be able to follow us in the middle of the night anyway. We should be able to leave in the morning."

The leader sighed.

Mercenary Leader: "I don't know about that. You saw how he took on that pack of monsters, no normal person is capable of doing that."

They all took a moment and remember how Ryan slashed all those wolves in two before the leader snapped them back into the present.

Mercenary Leader: "So what's the haul today? You guys said he was loaded."

The mercenaries got excited and started showing him what was in the pouches, even the cleric somehow conjured some strength to join in the presentation.

Knight Mercenary: "This guy was absolutely loaded! That guy had at least three of these bags filled with gold! The rest either have herbs or magical items! We'll easily make over 10000 gold just by selling these things, over 25000 gold if you include the gold coins already in here!"

Even the mercenary leader's eyes started to shine when looking at the contents. It seemed as if their five pairs of eyes were able to light up the entire house. They quickly closed the bags fearing that someone else might see.

Mercenary Leader: "Alright, enough with the gawking. Let's get some rest now and get out of here first thing in the morning."

They all nodded and proceeded to get comfortable. However, they were soon interrupted when the door suddenly opened.

???: "I'm sorry to say this, but you guys probably won't be able to sleep after this."

Everyone turned their heads toward the door and saw Ryan outside just standing. Their eyes contained half shock and half fear.

Ryan: "Who am I kidding. I'm not sorry to say this and you guys definitely won't be able to sleep after this."

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It honestly didn't take Ryan too long to find the five of them. He knew that they had to choose a place where there were little light and not much going on, so that narrowed down the location to the poorer part of the town.

From how they criticized their leader of wasting money, he was able to assume that they did not have much of it, meaning that they were most likely in a place they did not own, like an abandoned house.

This meant that all Ryan needed to do was spot any rundown buildings and check if there were any recent footprints leading into the house and whether or not there were more than one set of steps.

It didn't take too long before he found the right place.

As trading some words and teaching them a lesson they will never forget, he knocked them all out and dragged their bodies out into the night. No one would know what had happened to them till the morning.

After an hour of doing something, Ryan finally went back to his room with his stolen things and fell asleep. He slept quite peacefully that night, he hadn't slept in a normal bed for about 2 weeks.

When Ryan woke up, the sun was barely out and people were only beginning their daily activities. When he opened the window, he was able to hear some commotion in the distance and smiled in response. As he was preparing for today's task, he looked at the bags of valuables that caused him some annoyance last night and sighed.

Ryan: "Why couldn't God give a storage skill? Carrying these things wherever I go is beginning to become a hassle."

After thinking for a bit, Ryan slapped his t.h.i.g.h.

Ryan: "That settles it. I'm buying a carriage after getting my mercenary tag."

Ryan went downstairs to the diner and was a bit surprised to see that the owner was up. When Ryan asked why he was up and about so early, the man did not answer and just nodded. Seeing that he was not going to get a straight answer, Ryan just ordered some breakfast and the owner went into the kitchen and back out in a couple of minutes with a steaming plate of eggs and bacon, a surprisingly normal American breakfast.

Ryan quickly finished his meal, said his thanks to the owner, and left to the Mercenary House to receive his identification before he buys a carriage.

When Ryan arrived, he was thankful that the place was open. He was a bit worried that it wouldn't be due to how early in the morning the day was.

Walking in he noticed that the place was really spacious. There were tables and chairs all around the place and there was even a bar/diner in here too. The right side of the building was covered with papers pinned on it, all requests from various sources. Plus, even at this time, there were a couple of people awake and sitting around, most likely solo mercenaries.

Ryan walked right up to the receptionist, ignoring all the stares from everyone else.

Ryan: "Hi, I liked to register an identification tag."

The girl behind the desk just stared at him for a moment and started mumbling.

Receptionist: "This early and asking for mercenary tag. The heck is wrong with you?"

Ryan pretended like he didn't hear that.

Ryan: "I'm sorry?"

The girl replied by taking out a small booklet and a brown tag.

Receptionist: "I asked if you wanted me to explain anything."

Ryan chuckled internally.

Ryan: "Just the basics."

She sighed and prepared a cup of water.

Receptionist: "Every mercenary that had just registered starts off in copper tier. You can raise your tier to iron, gold, platinum, etc. by doing difficult jobs or many jobs of your tier. To my left, on that wall, is a huge list of jobs available to all mercenaries, but you can only take jobs that are at most one tier higher than your current. In this case, since you are copper, you can only take iron or below tier jobs, unless the job is specified as 'any tier'. Lastly, when you choose a job or turn one in, you must report back here for the reward after we have confirmed it. If you have any other questions, they all are answered in this booklet."

She gulped the cup after continuously speaking

Ryan: "In that case, is there anything else I need to do to receive a tag?"

This time she took out a piece of paper.

Receptionist: "Just pay 50 gold and write your name here and you're all set."

Ryan dug through the pouch on his waist and easily handed her 50 gold before he took the tag and the booklet. Saying bye, Ryan left soon after, now heading towards a stable where they sell carriages.