Chapter 42 – Preparation
#042.
Gaon, who had been silent for a while leaving the magic tower behind, opened his mouth as soon as he entered the downtown area.
“But are you really okay?”
“What?”
“It’s the Mage Tower. If you are as talented as Lee Cho-rin, you will probably be able to live a fairly comfortable life with all kinds of support.”
It’s Gaon. If Chorin is there, she needs it to be a great power to achieve her goal, but she doesn’t know that.
From her point of view, even though Gaon was unilaterally forcing her to sacrifice for her own safety, she did not resist.
For what reason, Chorin’s somewhat joyous voice flew into Gaon’s ears as he pondered.
“Then what about Mr. Gaon?”
“Yes?”
“Are you going to be alone, Mr. Gaon? I should be by your side too. Isn’t it?”
The smile is dazzling. I couldn’t even feel the scorching heat at this moment. The emerald eyes, shining kindly as if they had absorbed all the light, embraced him completely and faced him straight up.
Chorin, who was full of green color, was showing off her fresh charm.
Gaon nodded her head as she narrowed her eyes to see her beauty.
“Then I just want to thank you.”
“Still, I am a little disappointed. Learning magic was a lot of fun.”
“… Just because you don’t belong to the Mage Tower doesn’t mean you can’t learn magic.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Of course, it is difficult to receive instruction by attending a teacher like in the Mage Tower, but you can buy a magic book with money.”
“I see! Thank god.”
Above all, there is one more group of wizards besides the Mage Tower. That’s the Magic Guild. I wonder what the hell is the difference between the magic tower and the wizard guild, but the two are distinctly different.
To put it bluntly, the wizard guild could be seen as a more free place. As long as you put your name on it, it doesn’t matter what you do after that.
Since the first guild was founded by a commoner, there is no discrimination based on social status. Conversely, the Mage Tower tended to consider differences in status quite a bit.
But if you have the skills, that’s a different story.
The magic tower is a place where those who have devoted their lives to magic gather. In such a place, what counts the most is not status, money, or personal connections, but magic skills.
If it is Cheon Jae-hee, he will show great talent there and receive everyone’s attention.
After walking around talking about magic for a while, I found myself in a guild street.
A guild is actually not a very complicated organization to make. A guild is something you can create if you have more than a certain number of heads and money to register.
So, while there are large guilds that accept people of all ages and genders, such as adventurer guilds and mercenary guilds, there are also small elite guilds that accept only a minimum number of people based on conditions.
The important thing is that the mercenary guild accepts quite a few people into the organization, and because of that, you can get something to prove your identity as a mercenary.
Of course, you can’t enter a luxury building like a hotel, but anyway, there was no better option than this for them, who are in a similar situation as illegal immigrants.
“I see my destination over there.”
“… A mercenary guild?”
It was a huge stone building.
It’s not that luxurious, but still, a lot of people were coming and going in and out of the three-story building that was built sturdily.
There is a sign hanging at the entrance.
「Mercenary Guild Lestige Department」
The place they arrived through the gate was a territory ruled by Baron Lesti, a rather secluded place far away from the capital of the Pentra Empire.
There were no decent resources around, so it was to the extent that he was barely maintaining his life with the income obtained from the demonic world, that is, the dungeon created by overlapping dimensions.
“Then let’s go in.”
“Oh, yes!”
Gaon lightly wrapped Chorin’s shoulder and permeated through the crowd. It was morning, so there were a lot of people who came to receive the request.
The population density at the entrance was terribly high enough to make one think that it might turn into a human patty, but fortunately the request board and counter were quite far away, so it was enough to look around quite leisurely once you got out of the entrance.
Gaon headed to the counter, leading Chorin, who was still looking around as if he was curious about other races.
Then, the counter clerk who was trimming his nails put on a business smile and opened his mouth.
“Welcome. What business are you?”
“I’m trying to register as a mercenary.”
At the word “Mercenary registration,” The counter staff looked at Gaon and Chorin’s looks and said.
“Are you an Earthling?”
“Yes. Are there any problems?”
“No. However, if you are an earthling, you should be aware that there may be disadvantages to the request. The client may reject it.”
“I know that much.”
“Yes. Then please write your personal information here. You can write it as a fake, but if you get caught, you may be wanted several times, so please keep that in mind.”
With those words, Gaon handed out the paper to Chorin, and wrote the information on the paper with a ballpoint pen on the shelf.
It seems that you have come to the district office.
There wasn’t much information to write on paper.
Name, age, gender, preferred weapon or country of origin. This was the end.
Actually, this was just about right.
People who migrated from another dimension couldn’t have an address, and the mercenary plaque only served as a minimum ID and had no significant effect.
However, I would like to think that it would be better if the country of origin was omitted. This is because there are people who doubt the fact that he is an earthling even when he tries to entrust the request.
Even if it wasn’t to the point of canceling the request at once, I had a preconceived notion that maybe this guy was just getting an advance payment and not doing the job properly.
This is also the karma of the earthlings, so who is to blame?
The people of the Moorim district were simply ostracized by those who were wary of the potential of martial arts, and the people of the Hunter district were persecuted by them and fought a duel to solidify their position, only to be defeated.
It was unfair that Gaonne, who had no guilt at all, received that karma, but Union was not a world that was easy enough to listen to the weak.
It was wise to just adapt to this world and curl up until you get stronger.
Gaon and Chorin, who had filled out all the information on the paper, returned it to the counter clerk, and after she pressed one of the switches on her table, two men and women came down from the second floor.
The two men and women exchanged greetings with the counter staff and spoke to Gaon and Chorin. Among men and women, it was the man who opened his mouth.
“Hey. I’m going to do a simple test, so come along. The ranks will be divided according to the level, so you should do your best.”
“Yes.”
“Yes!”
The two went up to the second floor following the guidance of the man and woman.
Unlike the first floor, the second floor was quite quiet. There were only a few doors hanging close to each other in the center of the long hallway, and very few people passed by.
As soon as the two men and women came up the hallway, they were torn in two.
Gaon and Chorin exchanged glances asking to see each other later and followed their respective guides into the same room.
There was nothing inside except for a desk and chair in the corner and various training equipment hanging on the wall.
While looking at the bleak interior, the man looked over the paper Gaon had written and said.
“So, are you on vacation? The weapon used is a spear… Do you have any special skills?”
“Doesn’t exist.”
“Okay. Then start sparring right away. Feel free to attack.”
Perhaps thinking that there was nothing more to look at when he said he had no special skills, the man who had put the paper on the desk picked up two spears hanging on the wall and threw one at them, then picked up the rest and slammed them up and down.
Seeing that, some might get angry at me for ignoring me, but Gaon didn’t feel any change in his emotions.
I just took the spear and stabbed it right in.
Fuck!
“Hmm… How is it?”
The man lightly deflected the mana-loaded stab.
As Gaon looked, the man in front of him was a spearman who had reached the level of six stars. As he is now, he died in a head-on fight. Even if he awoke, he could not win.
That’s why Gaon put aside the worry that he might get hurt and poured in a series of attacks with all his might.
The trajectory of the spear that was piercing the torso bends in the middle and strikes the side, but is quickly blocked by the spear that follows the trajectory.
Then, immediately retrieved it, stepped on it, rotated the spear in all directions, confused it, and then attacked the man by striking it with a spear in a surprise attack.
Although Gaon did his best, he did not manifest any auras or use his own spearmanship.
In any case, the difference in one rank is not that great for mercenary work. To be precise, there was no problem at all in following his growth plan, whether or not he manifested his aura.
That is why the man occasionally vomited admiration at the creative attack, but did not show any serious surprise.
How many minutes passed
At that moment when sweat began to seep from his forehead, the man deflected Gaon’s attack and stepped back.
“Stop. That’s enough. The spearmanship is quite good. It’s D-class.”
“Then can I leave now?”
“Okay. If you take this paper and go to the counter, it will take care of it for you.”
“Yes. Enough then.”
Gaon left the room holding a piece of paper with the letter D written on it. And when I came down the stairs to the first floor, Chorin, who had been waiting for me beforehand, approached me.
“Miss Gaon. How was it? I got a C grade!”
“Is that so? Great. I am D-class.”
“I am higher!”
“Yes. Lee Cho-rin’s ability is outstanding.”
“Whoops! Then go quickly!”
Excited by Gaon’s praise, Chorin walked lightly to the counter. She seems excited about the fact that she was rated higher than that.
When they went to the counter and handed out the paper, the counter clerk excused himself and left the seat.
Of course, another employee was seated at the counter instead.
After waiting for about 5 minutes, the counter staff came back.
“Here is the mercenary. Please be careful not to lose it. You get paid when you issue it again. Regarding the request, if you look over there, there is a pamphlet, so check it out!”
“Thank you.”
Gaon, who bowed his head in gratitude for the kind response, went with Chorin to the place where her pamphlet was.
There, three or four people who looked quite new were sitting on long chairs against the wall, leafing through pamphlets.
Grabbing a pamphlet each from a nearby table, the two slowly read through it.
“Wow—the requests are so diverse, right? There are chores to escort, subdue, and find cats… And, the Magician? What is this?”
Chorin, who was looking around the booklet with admiration, suddenly tilted her head at her.
This is because the pamphlet does not contain detailed information about the Demonic Realm.
This booklet was only about injecting simple information to those who became mercenaries for the first time, there was no such in-depth content.
Gaon said while staring at Chorin, who was looking through the booklet, perhaps to satisfy her curiosity.
“It is said that the demonic realm is a space created by overlapping dimensions. It usually appears in the form of a forest, but it is said that there are cases where it becomes a labyrinth or dungeon.”
“Is it so? Mr. Gaon knows everything!”
“Thanks to psychometry. I heard what you said when you came in earlier.”
Lying is bad, but always useful.
It is because he can release information from his past life and pass it off roughly with psychometry.
Chorin seemed to be convinced by Gaon’s words and folded her pamphlet.
“I am also Gaon. So what do we do now?”
“Hmm… We’ll sit around here until lunch and eavesdrop on information. We will be able to answer all your doubts.”
“Yes. Then sit here!”
Chorin carefully held Gaon’s hand and she dragged her to the table set to one side.
They settled down there until lunchtime, looked around, and slowly adapted to Union.
