DROOOOOooo!~~
A loud war horn resounded from the adventurer association, echoing through all of Losla from the hill.
Jay and Anya were already close to the mist keep dungeon entrance when they heard it, but it caused them to stop in their steps, cancelling their plans.
“What’s the horn about?” Jay casually asked, assuming it was some kind of drill.
“I don’t know, but we should go to the guild.” Anya said with a worried look.
“Hmm, alright… I just need one second, wait here!”
“B-” All she could do was frown as Jay ran off.
Jay sprinted to the entrance of the mist keep dungeon and entered before Anya could even protest.
Getting into the dungeon, Jay immediately summoned Sweeper and took out all the armour he had for his skeletons - the helmets, greaves and vambraces along with a hammer for Sweeper.
Like usual, he tossed them all on the ground.
“Make sure the others get their armour, then follow Blue’s command.” Jay barked out an order as fast as he could.
He then quickly looked around, finding a pile of soul stones and helvetian rings.
“Nicely done.” he smiled, adding them to his inventory.
[Soul stone] (Empty) x 24
[Helvetian Ring] x6
“Huh, a little low on rings… or maybe we’re high on soul stones?” Jay thought as he gazed towards the fourth pyramid, seeing traces of the dihexapedes having free reign over the stone soldiers.
Jay didn’t really mind that there were now dihexapedes everywhere though. As a necromancer, he basically still has the same battle strategy. He simply had to let his skeletons kill them so he could relax at home, letting everything fall into his lap.
“It will be an easy life for me,” he smiled.
Seeing that everything was in order, he quickly left the dungeon, finding a frustrated-looking Anya waiting outside.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” she said as she beckoned Jay to start running up the hill with her.
“Sorry, it didn’t take long at least?” He followed her.
Anya said nothing as she continued to run up the hill.
Further up were groups of other adventurers running to the guild, it was like every adventurer was being summoned - this was when Jay saw a familiar person, slowly scrambling up the hill, much slower compared to the rest.
“Stephen…” Jay thought, quinting at him.
Jay realised he could totally do something completely malicious right now - but for some reason, seeing the sorry state that Stephen was in, he pitied him.
*DROOOOOooooo~*
With a sigh, Jay went up behind him, grabbed his arm and put it around his neck. He didn’t say anything and Stephen didn’t even look at who was helping him, both went as quickly as they could while the horn sounded.
Jay had already helped him scramble up a few rocks before Stephen even looked at him.
Seeing that it was Jay helping him, he almost misstepped and face-planted as this was the last person he expected to help, but he didn’t say a word. Neither of them said anything.
As they got to the top of the hill they stood up straight again and Jay took Stephen’s arm off his neck, ignoring him as he walked to the mana stone gate.
Stephen was more confused than Jay about why he did this - wasn’t this the guy he attacked? Shouldn’t he be kicking dirt in his face? Spitting on him as he ran by?
There was no one else around, so it was clear that Jay didn’t do this for his personal image either.
Next was paranoia, maybe it was some kind of mind game meant to mess with his head. Why the fuck did he just help him?
Stephen wasn’t willing to let his guard down, and internally he was holding back a sense of respect from building towards Jay.
It was at this point he realised he would actually rather have been spat on. It would make more sense; the good deed didn’t make him grateful but grit his teeth in confusion.
“I’ll pay that asshole back with my own kind gesture.” he squinted at Jay, thinking this was some sort of game.
Jay walked away, deciding not to say anything. Perhaps it was his subconscious telling him to help, but he didn’t think much of it. It was a small thing to him, but a huge thing to Stephen.
As they got to the floating mana-stone gate, a small crowd had formed, a bottleneck of people as adventurers slowly went through.
The crowd didn’t just consist of the adventurers who turned 18 this year, but even a few stragglers left over from last year were here too.
They were higher level, around level 17 - but this was not a very high level considering they had a year head start compared to the current adventurers.
Slaying monsters in dungeons was just a hobby for them, a casual thing to do. If they were higher level they would have left Losla already in search of higher level areas.
“Filthy casuals.” Jay whispered to Anya as he passed by some of them.
She nodded, agreeing with Jay’s verdict.
As they entered the courtyard, only about one hundred adventurers were there - however compared to the first training day they all looked much more menacing.
People with swords, maces, lances, axes, shields and armour were on the left, while spears, javelins, bows, daggers, crossbows and even some rapiers were on the right.
One guy even had a scythe. It seemed awkward to carry, but he had a confident, relaxed look on his face. He was waiting for something exciting to happen, as if this wasn’t exciting enough.
A few of the guards were standing in front of the association with their arms folded, stopping people from entering the building - at least until Anya walked up.
“Come on, Jay.” she said, gesturing to him.
“Staff and residents only.” a guard said as he saw Anya trying to bring Jay inside.
A few adventurers snickered behind them as they went silent, waiting for the look of disappointment of Jay and Anya’s face as they were turned around; they were like proud little goblins that wanted to see others be embarrassed and made to look stupid.
In every large crowd there were always a few people like this - mocking those who would speak up but never having an opinion of their own.
Thankfully, their smirks were quickly removed from their faces as Anya spoke up.
“He’s a resident. He just moved in today actually.” Anya said as if it were a matter of fact, as she opened the door and called to Margaret who was at reception before the guard could even say anything.
“Jay’s a resident, right!?” she called out while pointing at the guard.
Margaret looked back and gave a thumbs up with a smile to the guard.
The guard nodded in recognition; who was he to defy Margaret’s orders? There were times when she even ordered Sullivan around. It wasn’t like she had much authority, but more that no one wanted to get on the bad side of such a sweet person.
The guard turned to Jay and nodded his head to the side, as if to say ‘off you go’.
Jay obliged with a smile and happily went inside; it felt good to receive a sort of VIP treatment while the crowd of adventurers in the courtyard looked on with jealous glances.
*DROOOOOOOOooooooo!~~*
The horn continued to sound as they went inside.
It was relatively quieter inside, but now they could still hear sounds of feet rushing about upstairs. It was like the old building had woken up.
“Hello dear” Margaret said, as calm as ever.
“Hi, so what’s happening?”
“You’ll see soon dear… it hasn’t happened in a long time… but we’ll be fine.”
“You’re not going to tell me?” Anya was slightly shocked, Margaret had been like a mother to her.
Margaret only smiled gently, “You’ll see soon enough.”
Jay stood by idly, listening to the conversation. It seemed they would have to find out what was happening along with the other adventurers.
