The Record of Unusual Creature

When Hao Ren, with much difficulty, finally managed to take another step forward, the main door of the mercenary guild hall flung open from the inside before a tiny silhouette was thrown out.

The sorry bugger who was thrown out was clearly a female based on the shape of her body. She was clad in a slightly faded old mage robe. Its design was similar to the design of robes worn by academia mages who were cooped up in their towers, studying magic. Yet, it lacked the distinct finery usually seen on the robes of wealthier mages. As she was thrown out, her hat fell off and her glossy gold hair danced before Hao Ren’s sight before she slammed into the ground.

The down-and-out blonde mage clambered up in a slightly embarrassing manner. She then went into a furious tirade of expletives. While she had a very nice voice, the lady’s flowery vocabulary when she started to curse, stunned Hao Ren. It was a veritable gust of storm with a red alert typhoon blasting outward. Hao Ren and his crew aside, even the surrounding mercenaries took a step back while a group immediately started to chatter among themselves. “How did this lass get better at cursing again…”

“Probably blew up her lab again and spent all her pent-up energy studying cursing.”

“Who dares speak behind the back of the great mage Rheia?!” The short mage’s hearing was exceptionally sharp and could catch someone was talking behind her back as she was in the middle of her tirade and immediately glared over with furrowed brows. “Nothing for your sorry lot here! Go somewhere else to chill! Or are you taking up my commission?”

The mercenaries were usually a bunch of tough brutish bastards but no one dared to talk back against the enraged little mage. Based on their expression, they were probably looking at a massive crapload of trouble, only suitable for entertainment and nothing else.

“Forget about it. No one will take your mission.” A dark-skinned bloke by the door of the guild hall finally spoke. He was the one who had tossed the little mage out. “From testing out the relics you dug out from the ruins to trying out your randomly concocted drugs and following you to dig up some ancient grave… What’s next? Finding the sea giant’s fortress in the Howling Bay?”

The tiny mage was at lost for words that she could not retort and one of more elderly spellcasters among the crowding mercenaries finally spoke. “That’s enough I suppose, Ms. Rheia. High time for you to let go of your unrealistic experiments and do some proper magical studies? You cannot save the world or destroy it, but at least look after your master’s tower. Know that, to us wild mages, that is still a rather enviable inheritance.”

The elderly mage, while a mercenary, seemed to be well-acquainted with this little lady called Rheia, and the latter could only keep her bared fangs reluctantly before grumbling, “What do you care about my experiments. It’s not like I’m not paying. With that said, the last few batches did run into some danger but it all turned out fine in the end, right?”

“Others would pay ten times more for the danger that comes with accompanying you!” The guild strongman shook his head. “Everything’s been said and done. We will no longer take your commissions unless you are willing to forgo the dangerous parts or increase your price by tenfold. Of course, you can see if anyone is willing to take you up on a private contract. Maybe you can find some new blood to go along with you.”

With that, Rheia gave up on arguing with the door guard and turned her head around.

And the crowd of mercenaries recoiled at the same time.

“Tsk,” The lady mage let out a bitter noise as she fixed her robes and picked up a seemingly cheap-looking metal staff and walked with a puffed chest towards the street without even putting her hat on. “Alright, make way, make way. Nothing to see here. Anyone in my way I’ll take it as you’re accepting my commission?”

The mercenaries scattered, as though they had seen a ghost. The mage’s combat prowess or status (if she had any) was probably the least of their concerns. Rather, they did not want to get dragged into obvious trouble. The name “Rheia” was so notorious that it eclipsed the fame of the local lord. Her fame was made out of stories about unexpected incidents and unlucky encounters. That little mage was pretty much synonymous with trouble, and aside from the fun of watching, no one was willing to stand within five meters of her.

Even when she was tossed out she still held the presence of a victor as she left for the main street with her head held high, across the main street with her head held high, and into an alley towards the wizardry zone with her head held high.

As she arrived there only did she lowered her head, that pugnacious cockerel aura of hers disappeared as she hushedly sighed. “Haih, a bunch of fools.”

“Avoiding trouble comes naturally to all living being, especially a reputation like yours.”

A voice came from behind her, and the little mage was surprised by the sudden voice. She reacted at a speed unlike most mages as she turned about. She took a step back and hunched her back as she held up her metal staff in a stance the moment she moved away from her original position. At the same time, sparks of magic started to jump between the fingers of her left hand. “Who are you?! You… You lot were standing at the guild hall earlier?”

Hao Ren and the rest walked out from the alley.

While White Maple Leaf City was a cosmopolitan city, the presence of this team was still rather obvious. Even with the excitable Lily and the terrifying Y’zaks’ penchant for turning heads aside, their nine-men team was made out of four to five different races. Such a well-equipped team was a rarity in itself. Probably because of that, Rheia had a pretty deep impression of them even when these were the people standing in front of the guild hall that she had only swept through with a glance.

“You actually remember us.” Nangong Wuyue was surprised. “Good memory.”

“A goldfish can’t be a scholar, you know.” Rheia did not let down her guard, and while she may have seemed arrogant, that did not mean she was careless. Think about this, she had just gone on a rampage before the guild hall, and now, a group of unknown mercenaries had tailed and cornered her in an alley… That did not look good by all accounts.

As she tried to bide for time, she studied the group, trying to ascertain their motive and nature. The group did not seem like bad company. They were probably the more polite-looking ones among the unscrupulous mercenaries. That was obviously after discounting the demi-giant. His face alone increased their hostility level by many folds, and even a group of saints would look like a crime syndicate with him around.

Hao Ren, of course. knew that his method would arouse suspicion and conflict from the target, but in order to avoid attracting the attention of passersby, he resorted to tailing the mage and appearing in the alley. The mission now was to dispel the misunderstanding and the tense atmosphere.

“Don’t worry, we mean no harm.” Nangong Sanba was the smoothest of the lot, and he quickly put on a gentle and convincing smile – the smile usually seen on snake oil paddlers or direct sellers. He held his hands apart to show that he was unarmed before speaking slowly, “You can see for yourself. We are travelers that have just arrived here without much knowledge of the place. We planned to visit the guild hall and we ran into you… sparring valiantly with your razor tongue, and that piqued our interest.”

“Interest?” Rheia asked cautiously, her opposite numbers speech and getup did match the part, but the last sentence clearly meant something was afoot. “What sort?”

“Your commission,” Hao Ren said directly. “Frankly speaking, we need money, and we are looking for an employer, so we are interested in what your commission is all about.”

This was just an excuse, and the real reason is that he needed to make contact with a local to better understand the situation of this world. But in a totally foreign world, finding someone and building a stable communication platform was not easy.

Going to the guild hall or a pub would be a decent choice, but the former required proper identification and registration while the latter requires local currency and god knows how many pints of liquor before people start talking. Currency was not an issue, the talking was. The team did have a number of bullsh*tters but gathering intel and bullsh*tting were not the same talents…

So sudden appearance of Rheia became the best possible breakthrough : She seemed to have a mission that needed helpers, and she would not be able to get any help from the proper channels…

Rheia gave Hao Ren and Nangong Sanba a suspicious look. “My commission? I don’t know how much you saw earlier but surely you’re not blind to see that almost no… Alright, no one was interested with my commission, and you actually came looking for it? Are you right in the head?”

“Going through the proper channels would be troublesome,” Nangong Sanba went through his prepared speech, and purposely kept it ambiguous, letting Rheia do the mental acrobatics herself.

“Proper channels…” Rheia took a slight step back. “Wait a minute, don’t tell me you lot have screwed up majorly before and have been blacklisted? Or are you adventurers who have never registered as mercs?”

“Ahem, we are clearly not bad people,” Nangong Sanba coughed dryly, “We just have yet to register that’s all. We came from afar and never thought of being a mercenary. But we ran into trouble along the way and our coins are pretty much gone, so we have to try our luck without going through the guild.”

“Not bad, people…” Rheia mumbled suspiciously as her eyes kept shifting towards Y’zaks.

Vivian sighed before looking at Y’zaks. “Big guy, probably should wear a helmet the next time around?”

“….My fault then?”

“Ah screw it, even the blacklisted ones are fine!” Rheia waved her hand in a defeated motion. “Besides, aside from you guys I probably won’t be able to hire anyone else. Right, so follow me!”