A Side Villain…

The theory exams concluded on friday and the next two days were given as a holiday exclusively for the first years as the second year didn’t have the luxury to waste time and for the third years everyday was a holiday given the flexible curriculum.

 

Many students who came to the Origin city for the first time would take this opportunity to roam around and explore the city they have heard so much about. Even the SIT students would be given rest for these two days as according to Laura a body needs ample amount of rest for optimum performance.

 

Being a student of the academy gives them various perks in the city like in every shop irrespective of the type of goods it sold they would be given an additional 10% discount and even the public transport was free for them to use.

 

But not many required that as they liked to walk around the city and see its wonders. Love has also started to sprout among the first years as many new couples could be seen hanging out together and enjoying themselves while on the other hand the newly formed groups were going in for dungeon diving.

 

The new groups would use these two days to get in sync with each other, know the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals hence getting that teamwork that is so much talked about. Dungeons are usually busy these two days courtesy these groups and also the new adventurers who have arrived from outside of the city.

 

But before they could go in the dungeon the groups and solo adventurers tend to buy a lot of supplies, supplies like potions, some weapons and other stuff required inside there and due to this shops that sold those supplies had much more footfall than others.

 

That was the reason Akira’s father had already left the house in the morning and was at his shop selling potions, gears, weapons and scrolls to the adventurer groups going for the dungeon. Akira too wanted to use these two days for nothing but to gain experience and breakthrough to the fourth tier but there was a problem.

 

In his house he was currently sitting on his bed and counting all the money he had earned by selling all the mana cores to the guild which to his pleasure was not enough.

 

“Three hundred and thirty seven, three hundred and thirty eight and three hundred and thirty nine gold coins. This is not good.” He sighed and laid back on his bed.

 

His past few excursions into the dungeons have cost him all the potions and scrolls his father gave him as a gift on the second day of academy meaning that now he was right now in a precarious situation. Even the weapons, mainly his sword and throwing knives, were not in good shape.

 

His sword was nothing like a hidden artifact,  family heirloom or an old era relic weapon of a famous figure. It was a simple sword made out of Iron mixed with other metals and such a sword runs out of its life quite quickly.

 

His father has thought that he won’t go beyond the second floor much less than the fifth floor he was currently at and hence gave him a sword which was quite effective against low level monsters but not so much against mid level.

 

His gear which was just a low grade leather mail which was worn underneath the shirt or tshirt was also on the verge of being useless. With all the money he had currently it was just not enough to buy everything that was required.

 

And he just couldn’t go to his parents and ask them for it as he knew that they were already doing more than enough and they also didn’t have extra resources to spare neither did he have a friend or someone else to ask for money.

 

And to go inside a dungeon with no potions and bleak weapons was suicidal even for him who had a few cheats to go with. 

 

“This world doesn’t even have a stock market which I could have used to earn some money.” He said and began thinking about ways to earn some money and buy some good stuff to work with.

 

“Okay if I remember the game correctly then there is an upcoming auction event but that is approximately six months later and I don’t even have enough money to buy anything.”

 

“Ahh how do I even earn money?” He said a little too loud, gaining the attention of his mother who was working downstairs.

 

“Akira what happened?” His mother Evelyn asked while doing house chores.

 

“Nothing, just thought of something.” He replied while coming downstairs.

 

“So what are your plans for today or are you going to be holed up inside that room of yours?” Evelyn asked teasingly.

 

“I don’t stay there holed up.” He refuted childishly.

 

“Yeah? So are you going outside then?” 

 

“Of Course, I was thinking about going somewhere.”

“Oh? Are you meeting up with your friends?” His mother asked.

 

“Uhh.. yeah something like that.” He replied awkwardly.

 

“Ooh so it’s not a friend but a ‘girl’ friend.” Evelyn guessed the wrong thing due to his awkward reply.

 

“No mom I have told you there is no ‘girl’ friend of mine.” He said.

 

“Hmm if you say so.” She said while humming some tone.

 

“By the way you do remember that right?”

 

“Umm what to be exact?” He couldn't think of anything to be done today.

 

“I am not even surprised that you don’t remember it. Tomorrow you are supposed to meet Jasmine at her house.” 

 

“Oh yeah.” Jasmine has invited him to her house a week ago and he has been keeping that at bay but not anymore.

 

“She has been inviting you for over a week now so don’t make a mess and go there like a good boy.”

 

“Mom, do I really have to go? You know that Lily would be there too and I am not very comfortable around her.”

 

“Akira ‘that thing’ happened five years ago and I know that it was not your fault and now that you guys are not engaged why don’t you try to resolve it like grown ups?” Her mom was genuinely concerned about him and didn’t want that incident to affect his relations.

 

“But she doesn’t understand that and the worst thing is she doesn't even want to listen to me, in her mind I am the worst.” He replied.

 

“I am not saying that you do it tonight or tomorrow but does it have anything to do with you not meeting Jasmine? I guess not, so please go there tonight.”

 

“Fine.”

 

He didn’t want to think about that incident or anything related to that so he left the house after that and began wandering in the nearby areas thinking about ways to solve his earlier problem of making money.

 

Which would allow him to buy the necessary supplies for dungeon diving but even after almost an hour of walking aimlessly he couldn’t come up with anything.

 

It was then that he noticed that unconsciously his feet had brought him to the entrance of the main guild building in the city and now that he was near it so what’s wrong with taking a look inside?

 

He entered the guild building which was a bustling place with people constantly moving here and there and doing one thing or another. Some were laughing and talking with each other while others were discussing some heavy things.

 

It was his first time coming here in the main guild building as for most of the time he would go to the exchange sector and get his mana cores converted into money but still thanks to his knowledge from the game he knew almost everything about this building.

 

The setting of the building was the same as almost every other in Origin city, a big ground floor with stairs in a corner leading to the first floor which had one or several rooms. 

 

On the ground floor there was the reception, a magical board which automatically adds new missions and deletes the old ones, there were also a lot of wooden chairs and tables to sit on and talk and lastly there was the stairs which led to the Guild master's room on the first floor.

 

The guild master was an old guy who would only come down if there was something that truly required his presence which since the last few years has not happened. Also his position in the social hierarchy of the empire was relatively good so it could be said that he was having a good time.

 

Akira went ahead and began looking at the notice board which had a lot of work posted on it for the adventurers to take upon and they were paying a decent amount of monetary compensation for it too, but there was a problem.

 

His ID card was an Iron one and was not updated to his recent tier level meaning the number of missions he could take right now were not that many.

 

“Now I need to get my ID card updated which would take a few hours at least given the number of people that are in the line for similar things.” 

 

Updating an ID card was not a regular thing as people didn’t jump tiers and levels on a daily basis, it would take weeks sometimes months for levels to change and to ascend tiers it would take at least months and that too if you are starting out.

 

So the guild saw this and decided to merge all the activities related to ID card into one building which was a bit far away from this main building and since today was a holiday the footfall would be much higher there leading to much more waiting time.

 

He was thinking about all this and had decided to head back and think more profoundly on how to earn money but then from the corner of eyes he noticed a peculiar mission posted there, an escort mission to be exact.

 

The mission was an ‘escort request’ by one of the big merchants in the city who dealt with herbs required for making health potions and his minimum condition was that the escort party must be a group of 4 members who were at mithril rank.

 

Pretty high demands if you ask anyone as asking a mithril rank group for an escort mission was not something you would see that often. And the fact the merchant was not using city’s portals for traveling to his destination also tells that something was going on and the merchant was also paying a hefty amount of 5000 platinum coins which were way too much for something like this.

 

Sure this mission was a peculiar one and also had a good compensation but why would it catch his attention? Well the thing was that this mission was already accepted by the Dark Swords, one of the few mythril ranked groups in the Origin Continent.

 

They were a group of four members all males who had graduated from the Origin Academy more than a decade ago and ever since that they had risen through all the hardships and became such a respected name among the adventurers and other peoples.

 

Dark swords had accepted this escort mission but they had also put out one request that they needed an extra guy to go along with them and this extra person should be from the Origin academy and the tier of that person didn’t matter.

 

Many groups who had graduated from the Academy did this as a way of giving it back to the place which made them so capable and Dark Swords was only following this tradition of giving it back to it’s alma mater. The best thing about it was that they were also giving a small amount of money as a bonus to the experience.

 

Akira was pretty excited by this as not only was this an opportunity to earn the much needed money he could also get some invaluable experience and some advice from the big shots.

 

Sure he has the knowledge of the game and it’s mechanics but to learn from someone who had been in the field for so long is always welcomed and the biggest thing was that this group had nothing to do with the plot of the game making it his best bet.

 

Excited, he went to the reception where a guy in his twenties was standing beside a girl who was giving him love stares. He didn’t want to disturb the lovely couple but this wasn’t the place to act all lovey-dovey.

 

“Excuse me, do you know where I can find Dark Swords?” He asked the guy snapping him back to reality.

 

“Ahh sorry about that.” The receptionist bowed to which he waved his hand telling that it was not necessary.

 

“No problem friend, now can you tell me where the members of Dark Swords are?” 

 

“Yes why not, they are currently in the tavern situated just in front of our building.”

 

“Yes they told us that they would be there before leaving for the next mission.” The girl told him.

 

“Thank you.” He replied and went towards the exit of the room.

 

The tavern outside the Guild was quite a famous one in the city as for one it was just on the opposite street in front of guild making it much more accessible for both new and old adventurers, second the food and drinks served there was amazing.

 

And the third reason was Owner’s daughter. Let's just say that she was the most adored, the most beautiful and most praised girl among both old and new adventurers. 

 

She has been working in the tavern since her childhood and due to that every one who goes there has known her and over time due to her good nature and behavior she has made a good impression on them.

 

When Akira went inside the tavern he was welcomed by the strong smell of booze and food that was laid out for the hungry adventurers. The room was lively and everybody could be seen chatting and laughing with each other.

 

But his eyes were searching for the members of Dark Swords and not focused on anything else that was going on in the tavern. He quickly searched the room and soon enough found them using their famous mark.

 

Three men were enjoying their ale sitting in one of the corners of the room and from the tattoos of two dark knives on their left hand you could easily see that they were the members of the famous Mithril ranked adventurer group ‘Dark Swords’. One has to be living under a rock if he was not able to identify them in the Origin city.

 

Akira wanted to head towards them but his way was blocked by the sudden entry of an orange-headed person who was not giving him any space to move ahead.

 

“Hello, I haven’t seen you here before so is this your first time here?” She asked and Akira got a chance to look at her face.

 

She had long orange hair which were tidied back and still some of them were falling ahead dancing on her left cheek, her pupils were golden in color and her face had a natural pinkish tone to it which looked extremely charming.

 

She was wearing clothes similar to how a waitress or helper in a restaurant would but that didn’t hide her curvy proportions or that big chest, all in all she was looking gorgeous.

 

“Are you done looking?” She asked with a teasing smile.

 

His face instantly got red due to embarrassment but it reverted back quickly and he shook his head while saying,

 

“I am sorry, that was not good.”

 

“Oh how kind of you to say that after you have done ogling my body.” She replied without missing a beat.

 

“And I am sorry for that.” He said.

 

“Fine, fine, just because it’s your first time here. So are you a new adventurer? Do you want something to eat or drink?” 

 

“Yes and no, I am here to meet the members of Dark Swords about their new mission.”

 

“Oh the Dark Swords?” She was surprised at that.

 

“Yeah, so can I go now?” He asked her.

 

“Yes but you do know that they wouldn’t just meet anyone right?” She tried to warn him.

 

“Oh they would definitely meet me.”

 

“Well if you say so.” Then she left the place and went on with her work.

 

With her gone he began walking towards the members of Dark Swords.