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Yeoman tightened his grip on the wooden sword in his hand. It had taken a while, but it was his turn to fight the guild master. Despite the overwhelming loss the previous parties faced, everyone still wanted to take the placement exam. It would save them the trouble of completing twenty E-ranked missions.
“You’re taking this alone?” the guild master asked, raising an eyebrow.
Yeoman shuddered. For some reason, he felt violated. The old man was leering at every inch of his body, and his eyes were extremely intense.
“Well,” the guild master said. “What are you waiting for? Come at me.”
Yeoman advanced slowly, inching forward. Charging at the guild master clearly wasn’t going to work. Also, Yeoman had the suspicion that the guild master was stronger than him. It didn’t make sense considering how scrawny the man was, but this was a magical world, not a regular one, and Yeoman couldn’t judge by regular convention. There were only a few things Yeoman was confident in: his ability to take attacks, and his bite force. However, he didn’t want to bite the guild master; turning him into a zombie would be a terrible idea.
Yeoman frowned and stopped outside of what he suspected the guild master’s attacking range to be. He had watched the elderly man fight over ten times, and people were always defeated after stepping in just a little further. Yeoman held his sword, uncertain of how to approach.
“Kick some dirt at him!”
It was nice having companions. When Yeoman couldn’t think of any plans, Ella was always there with her out-of-the-box thinking. Yeoman slammed his foot into the ground, kicking towards the guild master. The lump of earth flew like it was shot out of a gun, but the elderly man swatted it back with his sword, and Yeoman barely had time to duck, narrowly avoiding having his head torn off.
“I said dirt! You’re not supposed to give him a projectile to launch back at you! Didn’t you see what happened to the arrows?”
Yeoman exhaled and straightened his back. The guild master didn’t take a single step when defeating all the other parties. Whenever they launched ranged attacks at him, he simply swatted them back with perfect precision. The man was like a machine.
“Let me do it!”
Yeoman blinked twice as Ella came to his side. He looked at the guild master, and the guild master looked back at him. The elderly man shrugged. “She’s part of your party, right? It’s fine.”
Ella snorted and kicked the ground, sending a fine spray of dirt at the guild master. The man waved his sword, and a gust of wind blew forward. The spray separated and flew to either side of him as if there were a barrier blocking his body. Ella clicked her tongue and walked forward, unarmed. “Do you want to compete in a test of strength against me?” she asked, spreading her arms out to the side.
For some reason, Yeoman didn’t have much confidence in Ella. She didn’t add on any muscles; at least, Yeoman didn’t think she did. In fact, the old lady kept her abilities a secret. Maybe she was physically stronger than him? Yeoman relaxed, waiting to see what Ella was up to. She approached the elderly man, and the guild master laughed while lowering his weapon. “I can tell you’re not as strong as your companion. What trick are you trying to pull?”
Ella grinned and sauntered up to the guild master. “I’m going to kick your leg, and you’re going to be crying on the ground in pain. Do you believe me?”
“I’d love to see this,” the elderly man said and shifted his weight onto his good leg. “Go on. We’ll see whose leg breaks.”
Ella smiled and kicked out with her right leg. There was a gentle-sounding thump as her shin made contact with the guild master’s thigh. The elderly man’s smile stiffened, and his eyes widened. Ella pulled her leg back, and Yeoman noticed there was a hole in both the guild master’s and Ella’s pants. Was the old lady hiding a knife strapped to her leg?
The guild master let out a half-scream, half-grunt as he clutched his leg. He was gritting his teeth and yelling through them. His eyes welled with tears, and he did his best to keep them open; however, Yeoman could tell the poor man was in a lot of pain.
“Well?” Ella asked from Yeoman’s side.
“Well, what?”
Ella gestured towards the guild master who was slowly bending towards the ground. “Finish him off.”
Yeoman stared at the old lady. Did she really expect him to take advantage of the guild master’s current state? Ella gave Yeoman an encouraging look, gesturing towards the fallen old man as if she were gesturing for a dog to take a dump in the grass. Yeoman scratched his head and went over to the guild master. “Did we pass?”
“Pass!” the guild master shouted and grunted. “Antidote!”
Yeoman looked at Ella. She had poisoned the guild master? “Antidote?”
Ella shook her head. “No antidote.”
Yeoman looked back at the guild master. “No antidote.”
“Why no antidote!?”
Yeoman coughed and glanced at Ella. “Why no antidote?”
Ella shrugged. “Didn’t come with one.”
Yeoman redirected his gaze onto the guild master. “Didn’t—”
“I heard her!”
Yeoman coughed again and went back to Ella’s side, pretending not to see the tears leaking down the guild master’s face. “What did you do to him?”
“Woman’s secret,” Ella said and beamed. She snickered and leaned close to Yeoman before whispering, “It’s from the platypus gene.”
Yeoman nodded. The platypus was on that Japanese person’s document. Apparently, platypuses were one of the very few venomous mammals. Their venom wasn’t strong enough to kill a person, but it did cause swelling, and there was a pretty major side effect of making the victim hypersensitive to pain.
“There will be no more placement tests today,” the guild master said as he wobbled and climbed off the ground. “The rest of you can go home. Come back in a week.”
Ella patted Yeoman’s arm, drawing his attention away from the guild master. “Let’s go. Since we passed the placement test, we can pick up D-ranked missions now.”
Yeoman scratched his head. Did he really do anything? The only reason the guild master was on the ground was due to Ella and her poisonous spur. The parties who still hadn’t gone were giving the two of them ugly glances; even if they weren’t going to succeed at defeating the guild master, they still felt like their chances had been robbed, and Yeoman understood that. However, it wasn’t like he could fix the guild master; it’d require magic to do that. Then again, they were in a magical world. Yeoman glanced at Ella. “Do you think it’s possible to learn magic?”
The old lady shook her head. “Not likely.”
“What makes you say that?” Yeoman asked, pushing open the door to the adventurers’ guild. The inside wasn’t as crowded as the outside, but Yeoman suspected that was going to change very soon. Cody and the rest of the party were standing around a mission board. They hadn’t watched Yeoman fight, much to Yeoman’s annoyance.
“Just a hunch,” Ella said. “If the aliens wanted us to learn magic, they would’ve given us access to it in the last stage. We couldn’t even learn how to control qi.”
Yeoman nodded. That was a fair point. The aliens probably couldn’t grant things like magic or qi, forces that existed only in fiction; however, biological modifications were already a thing since a while ago: Someone grew a human ear on a rat. Another person stitched together two dogs, creating a six-legged, two-headed creature. If science became advanced enough, it was certainly possible to add on a layer of muscles to a person, but it’d require way more than science to give someone magical healing abilities without the help of equipment. Yeoman suspected the magic tools he had acquired last round were pieces of advanced technology which emulated the effects of magic.
“How did it go?” Cody asked, not turning his face away from the mission board. The eye on the back of his neck blinked at Yeoman. “I thought I heard the guild master say you passed.”
“Yeah, we passed,” Yeoman said and gestured towards Ella. “As usual, it was thanks to Ella. Also, I have a question.”
“What’s up?”
“When you sleep on your back, isn’t it uncomfortable for that eye?” Yeoman stared at Cody’s neck. The eye was a little below the Asian man’s hairline. It’d definitely get squished by a pillow.
Cody grunted. “I sleep on my side, so it’s fine. Also, good work. I knew I could count on you.” He walked up to the board and tore down a piece of paper. “The E-ranked missions are barely worth any money. It’s a really good thing you passed the exam since all the decent E-ranked missions have been taken already.”
Ella grinned. “Not only that, but the guild master said he’s not going to test anyone else for a week.”
“I should’ve watched,” Kat said and sighed at Yeoman, her whiskers drooping. “I thought you were going to get beaten, so I didn’t want you to feel embarrassed.”
Aakash grunted. “Should we take two missions? If we split the party into two, we can double our efficiency.”
“It’ll double our costs as well,” Cody said. “We’re tight on money; we can’t buy too many supplies. I checked the caravan rentals while I was looking for shops, and there’s no way we can afford two caravans. Besides, I think we should work together as a party, see how well we mesh together.”
Joanne nodded. “My last group would never have done something like force one person to take on such an important mission by himself,” she said, glancing at Yeoman. “All of us should’ve fought the guild master.”
“And what? Get injured for nothing?” Cody snorted. “My call worked out, didn’t it? No one got injured, and we’re now a D-ranked party.”
Yeoman checked his fleshwatch. The bonus mission hadn’t updated, but he suspected it would after they reported their results to the front desk. “I don’t mind,” Yeoman said to Joanne. “Cody’s decision made sense; it’s very difficult for me to sustain a heavy injury.”
Joanne pursed her lips. “One day, you’re going to resent being used like this, and the party is going to fall apart.” Her right toenail clacked against the ground as she tapped her foot. “For a group to survive, there has to be fairness.”
“We contribute what we can,” Cody said and rolled his eyes. “That’s fair. Now, let’s go accept this quest.”
The lady at the reception desk smiled at the party when they approached; although, Yeoman did think her expression looked a bit unnatural. It might’ve been a magical world, but zombies and six-armed, three-headed men were not the norm. “Are you party First? The guild master just informed me of your promotion to rank D. Congratulations.”
A light flashed on Yeoman’s wrist, confirming the mission was complete. Just like that, their party had secured a thousand points per person. If someone died, and the party continued ranking up without them, would the dead person still receive points? Yeoman hoped his group didn’t have to find out.
“We’ll take this quest,” Cody said, handing over the paper he tore off the board earlier.
“Exterminate a goblin encampment,” the receptionist said and nodded. She glanced at the group. “If you fail to complete the quest, you’ll have to turn in three times the reward as a penalty fee. Remember to bring back the goblin chieftain’s head to prove you’ve completed the quest.”
“Got it,” Cody said.
“Goblin extermination?” Yeoman asked Ella. “There were goblins in The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons?”
“Yes, there was a vague mention of them once,” Ella said. “They’re for beginner adventurers.”
Yeoman rubbed his chin. He didn’t remember any mention of them, but if Ella said they were there, then they were there. Was killing goblins easier than killing infected? Probably not, but they definitely wouldn’t be harder to kill than a fat bear. Yeoman’s stomach grumbled, and he couldn’t help but wonder how goblins would taste like. If they tasted anything like Lan….
“Hungry?” Ella asked.
Yeoman swallowed his saliva and shook his head, making sure to shut off his nose. He didn’t want to accidentally inhale any delicious scents. However, he did realize something a while back. If he wanted to talk, he had to breathe. There had to be air in his lungs for him to make sounds. “I’ll be fine. I just need to spread my wings out in some sunlight.”
The receptionist stamped the mission paper and handed it over to Cody. “Remember. Take care of yourselves. While completing missions is important, so is preserving your lives.”
Cody nodded and put the paper away. “Alright, we’re setting off.”
“Setting off? Where?” Joanne asked.
“Getting a caravan and heading east,” Cody said. “Where else? If we don’t hurry, there’s no way we’re going to complete all the bonus missions within a year. Don’t forget, there’s only one dragon egg that can be stolen, and it was done by characters in the book. If they do it first, we can forget about those sweet, sweet points.”
“Are you crazy?” Joanne asked. “You want to complete all the missions? No one completes all the missions; they’re there to tease us.”
“Yeoman here has completed every mission he’s been assigned—not to mention the ones in the second stage were cleared by himself,” Ella said, slapping Yeoman on the back. “If the aliens don’t want us to complete missions, they wouldn’t give them to us.”
Joanne, Aakash, and Kat stared at Yeoman as if they were seeing him for the first time. He stared back.
“Hey! Who’s the leader here? Him or me?” Cody asked, waving his right wing in front of them. “Kat and Aakash book us a caravan. Joanne, go to the inn and tell the innkeeper to keep our rooms clean for when we get back. Ella, come with me to the general store; we’ll get everything we need for the journey. When we’re all done, we’ll meet at the eastern entrance with the caravan.”
Yeoman furrowed his brow. “What about me?”
“Didn’t you say you were hungry?” Cody pointed up at the ceiling of the guild. “Fly in the sky, soak in some sunlight, and scout ahead for us.”
“Alright.”
The group exited the adventurers’ guild under the gaze of every other party there. They were all competitors. The missions the guild had were limited. The rooms in the inn were likely limited as well. The dragon-egg-stealing mission could only be completed by one party. If they were thrown into a lawless stage like The Godking’s Legacy, Yeoman had no doubt the parties would directly fight each other. Thankfully, they were brought into a civilized society this time, and the enforcers were clearly stronger than all of them.
Yeoman leapt into the air and spread his wings, soaring towards the sky. The town below was tiny, and there wasn’t much in its surroundings. There was one road leading to the northeast. The south was a clear plain, and beyond the plain, there was a forest. The wilderness was to the south, and the demons inhabited the west. The goblin encampment they were assigned to clear was located in the east; likely, the party would be paving the way for the humans to gain more territory. Yeoman wasn’t quite sure how the caravan was going to travel that well without a road. Well, if it ever got stuck in the mud, it wouldn’t be hard for him to lift.
Yeoman scanned his gaze over the town and frowned. Joanne was being followed at a distance by her previous group. Even though they were thrashed by the guild master, their injuries were bruises and cuts, a fractured bone at most. Joanne had ostrich legs, but she wasn’t using them to their fullest. Yeoman didn’t blame her; it was awkward to run on a street while everyone else was walking. Yeoman pumped his wings, hovering in the same spot. Everyone else was proceeding to their goals just fine; only Joanne had people tailing her.
Perhaps it was just a coincidence? Yeoman stayed in the air, watching the group, tilting his head to hear what they were saying, but they weren’t speaking. They might’ve been whispering, but the rest of the sounds in the town were making it impossible for Yeoman to discern any words. The town was small, meaning if there was a scuffle, everyone would hear. Yeoman didn’t think the group was going to attack Joanne, but he landed on the roof of the building across from the inn just in case. He didn’t care to mask his presence, letting everyone on the street know he was there. Joanne glanced up at him, and when he pointed behind her, a scowl appeared on the woman’s face. She turned around, stomping towards her previous group.
“Why are you following me?” Joanne asked, crossing her arms.
“You’re going to book a room at the inn, right?” one of the girls in the group asked. “We don’t have any money, and we were hoping you might lend us some.”
Joanne snorted. “Why would I give you anything?”
“Dad said you have to take care of me, remember?”
Yeoman blinked twice. Joanne left the group that her sister was still in? Yeoman scratched his head. He didn’t have any siblings or cousins, so he had no idea what kind of relationship siblings should have, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
“Dad also said you should listen to me, and you kicked me out.”
Hadn’t Joanne said she voluntarily left? Yeoman decided not to call the poor woman out and stood in silence. With a sibling in the other group, the meeting shouldn’t devolve into a scuffle.
“You know it wasn’t up to me,” Joanne’s sister said. “Are you going to give us the money or not?”
“You want the money?” Joanne asked with a sneer. She pointed at Yeoman. “This money is his. He’s killed a fat bear and thick-skinned crocodile by himself.” She dangled a pouch in front of her face. “If you want these coins, why don’t you ask him for it?”
Yeoman was a bit ashamed. Joanne seemed to have gotten the wrong impression of him. He had killed a bear and crocodile, yes, but it involved being eaten by them first. However, Joanne clearly wanted Yeoman to scare her previous group off, so he removed his spear from his back, from the little strap it was attached to, and swung it once while straightening his arm, pointing the spearhead at the ground in what he thought was an imposing manner.
Everyone stared up at him. It took the leader less than two seconds to avert his gaze. “Let’s go. Forget about it. We can earn money on our own.”
Joanne’s sister made a face. “I’m telling Dad,” she said before following after her group.
Joanne ignored her and looked up at Yeoman. “Thanks.”
Yeoman nodded and stowed his spear. “Of course.”
“Are you coming?” Joanne asked, gesturing towards the inn.
“No.” Yeoman shook his head. Somehow, he had the feeling the innkeeper would increase their rent if he showed his face. The zombie fungus gene might’ve been extremely helpful for survival, but it was definitely not a bonus for social interactions. However, if he was transported back in time to when he had a hole in his lung thanks to Snow, Yeoman would definitely use the gene again. Perhaps his mind would change when the discrimination became worse, but for now, he thought it was worth it.