351 A Short Mission 1
In Kalibo Forest, near the human settlement, Isolde and Leonel, together with Clawing Talons, were in the middle of hunting a Hidden Boss.
They set out when the night fell since the Boss only showed itself once the light was gone and darkness took over.
In the jungle, a small brackish stream splashed a cool scent of water and rich decay. Due to the surrounding stillness, their eyes could even catch a glimpse of a small forest creature, fleeting from tree to tree. Noise from their activities was almost non-existent, and the surrounding vegetation swallowed the remaining echoes.
Clawing Talons was an emerging guild with a rich backer, which was why they could afford to hire World Conqueror to help them kill the Boss. The Hidden Boss’s information hadn’t been cheap, but Clawing Talon was confident that their investment would return to them ten times after killing it.
Isolde and Leonel tried to like their current client, but they simply couldn’t, as Clawing Talons was composed of shrewd players.
Ren might be shrewd, but he was powerful enough to lift the weight of an entire party, so he had earned the right to be shrewd.
The people from Clawing Talons, however, kept on crossing the line. Their contract clearly stated that for a Hidden Boss, they needed at least ten players whose ATP was nearing hundreds.
Players nearing fifties in ATP were fine as well, but there must be at least twenty of them. Ren drafted the contract that way, knowing what the Hidden Boss was like.
Clawing Talons didn’t follow the conditions stated in the contract and only brought five players with ATPs nearing the hundreds. When asked about it, they merely said that some of the players couldn’t make it, not even attempting to explain.
In that instance alone, Leonel and Isolde should have backed away. However, they still proceeded onwards since the leader of Clawing Talons, Edgar, begged to continue, saying that they had already spent so much in preparing.
Clawing Talons had already deposited half of the agreed price, so Leonel and Isolde shrugged it off and pressed on. Ren also told them that no matter what happened, they must find the Hidden Boss.
But the more they continued their journey to the Hidden Boss’s location, the more Clawing Talons showed their true colors. During fights, they made Isolde and Leonel handle all monsters and stopped their healer from healing them, which forced the pair to use their own items for this campaign.
“We need to be in full health when we face the Boss,” was Clawing Talons’ excuse most of the time.
“You should have brought your own healer,” was their occasional quote.
“We’ve paid an enormous sum of money, but they only sent you two,” was what Edgar often said.
Isolde would naturally counterattack, “It’s so that your members would get more EXP and gil. Our contract clearly stated that World Conqueror would only provide two players to help out, while you should have at least provided ten members from your guild.”
Clawing Talons only shrugged, and it was made clear that their purpose of only bringing five members, all of whom were of higher rank in their guild, was to leech off the EXP and gil.
The EXP and gil were sharable, but Clawing Talons were just looking at the side while Isolde and Leonel did all the work.
If not for Leonel stopping Isolde, she would have blasted the five extra baggage to smithereens. She would’ve really done it even with Leonel trying to soothe her if only it wouldn’t leave a lasting bad image for their group.
Instead, Leonel tried to calm Isolde by shifting her attention to another topic that she loved, her guns.
“Is that your new weapon?” Leonel asked as they walked deeper into the jungle.
“Ah.” Isolde beamed and showed him the rattling gun. It was an all-matte black gun that was almost the same height as her. “I haven’t introduced you to my new gun, haven’t I? This is Isolde 4.0. I got this legendary weapon as one of the rewards when we defeated Jibblinplip.”
“Ohhh . . .” Leonel’s lips puckered out, and his eyes turned shiny. “What does it do?”
“It can ditch out a hundred bullets per second. It also has AoE damage. There’s no reloading time, and it doesn’t run out of bullets. It can also work out as a shield and hammer in close range.”
Sweat streamed from Leonel’s cheek. “. . . I-isn’t that too OP?”
Isolde shrugged, grinning. “It is. Though it decreased my AGI exponentially.”
“No worries.” Leonel looked over at her and thumped his chest with all pride. “As long as I am here, I won’t allow anyone to get close and hurt you.”
Leonel didn’t have any meaning when he said those words, but when he realized that there was supposed to be something between them, his lips curled inwardly, and things started to get awkward. From his perspective, that is.
“Ahh . . . mean . . . I . . . no one will . . . because you and I are . . .”
pAn,D a-n0ve1,c-o-m Contrary to what Leonel was expecting, Isolde only thought of his words as nothing but a funny remark and his stuttering as just some gibberish words he would sometimes say whenever they were together.
Isolde only laughed like she usually did. “I’m counting on you for defense then. Leave the damage to me.”
She then pointed a finger on her chin before beaming at Leonel. “Don’t you think we’re a great pair then?”
“. . .” Leonel’s whole body heated, and smoke rose from his head. He immediately looked away, not knowing where to place his eyes.
At least she was happy . . . right? Leonel thought. It was the most important thing of all. No matter what happened, Isolde should be happy with him . . . or else . . .
Leonel gulped, just thinking about her family full of trigger-happy gangsters.
Soon enough, they arrived at the Boss’ lair. They could tell that the ground was damp as they moved through the thick growths of trees and bushes.
It was difficult for them to see what they were doing, but thanks to the light shard the others held, they could somewhat see amidst the dark. The bright light from the Twin Moons also lit their path.
On the other hand, Isolde didn’t need any aid. As an Elf, she was gifted with night vision.