Chapter 228: Two Places
———Orrel———
<1: 51 pm>
*Clank* *Clash*
The sounds of metal hitting and scraping off each other echoed through the gym as the sparring matches were underway. Three matches in total involving an unusual duo for each.
“It’s rather hard to follow their movement, ain’t it?” Useph remarked as the fights continued.
“Perhaps, but we’re not exactly trying to observe their battles for any specific reason, only that we’re doing it because we have nothing better to do at the moment.” Rico just sorta let us do whatever we want today, so we simply decided on sparring matches. Some of us aren’t interested, so we’re on the bleachers.
Six strongest fighters in our class are duking it out and don't seem to be playing around for the most part. The small area they are sectioned to does slow them down a lot, less erratic movement with less space to work with.
“If those barriers weren’t put in place this whole sparring thing would’ve turned into a free-for-all very quickly.” Gregori remarked, looking at the playing area being divided into three. “Onto something else. How has the dungeoning been for everyone else? I haven’t been going down there for a while.”
“Pretty good. Just go up to fifty this weekend, actually.” Jeff is the first to speak up. A pretty good number of floors.
“Not even seventy? Weak.” Jeyst playfully said. Guess that’s the higher number they got to.
“Hey! I was carrying a bunch of stuff, no way I’m gonna go down further with no storage.” Jeff protested.
“Maybe don’t even worry about that? You probably hit a hard limit on your backpack before fifty. Just ignore anything that isn't equipment or potion until you reach the lower floors.” Gregori suggested. The lower floors do tend to give better rewards so that should be the priority if you can get there.
“Oh excuse me for not being optimal all the time!” Jeff protested. “What even is everyone else’s records anyway? I don’t want to hear some fake numbers around here!”
“…Yeah nothing really stops people from lying about that, is there? Not to mention you could technically just run past most floors with no impunity.” Gregori remarked. “I don’t think there’s a lot of clout in lying about it though, and it’s quite obvious when they do it.”
“Guess that’s true.” Jeyst chimed in. “I did find some claims people in the guild are saying to be bullshit. I’m pretty sure the only reason they got that far was because we cleared out multiple floors of the dungeon before they went in.”
“I mean. Yeah.” Gregori replied, not seeing any reason to argue further on the topic. “One thing for sure, it seems like there aren’t a lot of people frequenting the guild building. It’s meant to be a hub of sorts, right? Why ain’t there anyone there?”
“Why ask me? Go ask Sixson. He usually hangs around in there for whatever reason.” Jeyst deflected the question to someone else instead.
Speaking of Sixson, he’s sitting there by his lonesome away from the group. It’s basically a coin toss to see if he’s in a mood to be chatting with the rest of the friend group or not. Rather, the odds are weighted more towards ‘not joining in’, so it’s more like… sixty-forty.
“Come on now. You’re the one who keeps yapping about it aren’t you? Don’t cower now.” Jeff said with quite the bravado on him. He’s not the most confrontational in our group by a long shot.
Meanwhile the six people are still fighting at a good pace with no sign of slowing down. They aren’t using some of the more energy-intensive abilities, mostly just scrapping with barely any spells present. Usually that kind of restriction would’ve led to a more even fight if one side is stronger than the other, but…
“…Pairing Jennla and Karra feels a bit too fair, right?” Gregori pointed out. While Malk is fighting Emmie and Qyunda fighting Kenni, the three battles don't have quite the same dynamic.
The fight between Jennla and Karra does feel like a proper match, but the other two fights look more akin to a survival mission with the two weaker fighters struggling to keep up.
“It’s not exactly their fault the selection goes that way. Those two were the ones who insisted on it in the first place. They want to fight the strongest ones.” Jeff pointed out.
“That’s true and all, but maybe they should’ve planned it a bit better.” Gregori pointed out. It’s certainly something you can talk about with nuance, but it’s ultimately a trivial talking point.
Malk and Qyunda can barely even make a single move as a barrage of attacks from Emmie and Kenni keep them on the defensive.
Meanwhile Karra and Jennla are a bit more even, with the two exchanging attacks at a similar rate and it isn’t clear who has the advantage in their fight. Their fighting style while different in the terms of weapons, or lack thereof, they are still two close-ranged fighters who use magic sparingly. No weapon with a lot of reach, or magic spamming and tendency to attack from afar.
The other two underdogs don’t have that luxury which doesn’t help with the matchup in the slightest. It really shouldn’t be too long until both of them have to call it quits. Otherwise they’d just be a victim of a merciless barrage of attacks.
Malk in particular isn’t looking so hot with that giant scythe of Emmie. The range difference without using magic makes it so that he is at a significant disadvantage. He might technically be lighter without a weapon weighing him down, but the power difference means that the difference in speed is significantly less than it would be if both of them were in the same ballpark in terms of raw strength.
There is a lot to observe from the three battles happening simultaneously, but it’s quite a lot to observe and keep track of. It’s probably better for me to not worry about it too much.
“What even is a guild community anyway? The heck are they talking about in that kinda group?” Jeyst asked. My focus was elsewhere for a while, so I don’t know what led to that question.
“Probably just fighting advice and stuff. I know they are all technically competing with each other for the limited amount of money they can get from a dungeon run, but usually they go in a group anyway, so making sure to build some camaraderie is a good idea.” Gregori explained. “There’s a clearly established buddy system in the guild culture that we keep ignoring.”
“...Ah yeah. I guess that makes sense.” Jeyst replied. It seems like they never really think too much about the topic of the environment of a guild, or explorer’s assembly, but no one uses such a mouthful official name. Everyone simply calls it a guild for convenience sake even if it’s far from an accurate descriptor. “That doesn’t seem to stop people from bad mouthing the adventurers, it seems.”
“Of course it’s not gonna stop that. It’s a very dubious profession to begin with, and some shady guys trying to extort others of their loot doesn’t help either. Also, you know, the black market.” Gregori pointed out. That last part is certainly not something people talked about enough.
There is technically no rule against keeping the items you excavate from the dungeon, but selling those outside of official channels is prohibited in its official rulebook. Not that there’s many people who care enough about this little business to call out anyone who was caught doing it. The amount of adventurers isn’t exactly high enough to warrant weeding out those who they considered to be crossing the line. It’s a hellish cycle this new kind of career is running into. You can’t regulate things without causing the amount of workforce to become too small in a market full of nothing but risk, and yet the lack of those regulations made it even more attractive to most people. The risk of monsters tearing you to shreds is already quite a turn off, the possibility of being involved with people who don't care about the rules because they can’t really be replaced by someone else in such a tiny group of people is simply way too much.
“Yeesh. Yeah. That’s very sketchy.” Jeff remarked. Did he forget that all of us have been checking out said market a few times by now? Kenni in particular loves to go there to sell her stuff for cash. Emmie doesn’t seem to care about money so much so she just dumped her stuff at the official channel.
“Oh come on now, don’t act like you haven’t gone there a while ago.” Jeyst called him out. “...Did we ever figure out who is conspiring to buy those potions and monster parts?”
“Nope. I doubt we’re gonna ever figure it out. Same with us not figuring out why the government of each country even wants monster parts.” Gregori answered. It’ll probably take a long while before the truth of the matter comes out, and then we’ll know if the reasoning for it is foolish or not. “Don’t really feel like they’re making use of it, you feel me?”
“I think they got more use out of the adventurers for dirty work more than the loot they got.” I can’t help but remark. There is essentially a mercenary system in place, even if it’s technically not official.
“Oh yeah. That weird unofficial thing. Why don’t they just make that official?” Jeff asked, now remembering that byproduct.
“Probably because hired guns don't sound flattering. Imagine telling people that you’re part of an organization that could be recruited for skirmish or hunting certain individuals, there is a bit of stigma there for both the employers and the employees.” Gregori answered. “It’s not something someone wanna talk about proudly. By not making it official they can clean their hands out of the various incidents that are bound to happen. Not a perfect excuse, but it’s something.”
Regardless of its official status, that part of the job is probably more apparently profitable than seeing materials with uncertain value.
———Lerim———
<2: 39 pm>
The atmosphere of this room is certainly far from perfect. Some rather nervous-looking fellows, and even fewer guys that seem to have any shred of confidence. Did they get pressured into coming here or what?
“S-So, how is everyone doing?” One of them asked to break the ice.
“Doing perfect. Just perfect. Can’t believe a military base looks so damn shabby.” Another guy said, not mincing his words at all. “I know they aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, but this is ridiculous. This is what tax money is going to?”
“We’re not here to hear your rambling about politics, dude. Let’s all just sleep and be at max power when the invasion comes.” Another guy said, clearly not liking the potential argument that could break out.
“Shut it. Are you seriously gonna suck up people who cry for our help?” He sneered. “That cafeteria looks like shit as well. Probably gonna have a better time hunting out in the woods for food than eating whatever is served here.”
“Stop bitching, we’re here to do their dirty work and squeeze them out of their money. I’m sure they’ll be more willing to pay up if we keep quiet.” A different guy said, looking quite sure of himself. “Hey, you there. Where did you get all of that stuff anyway? Curry some favor from those soldi-
*Bang*
“That was a warning shot. I won’t miss next time.” I said after shooting a small energy attack that grazed his cheek, launched from my finger. That seems to shut him up quickly enough. “All of you, keep quiet. I don’t need to hear all of you arguing with each other, did I make that clear?”
How annoying that I need to share a room with these guys. There should be other cleared rooms, right? Perhaps I should bring it up at some point if they’re actually causing an actual ruckus.