The morning air was exceptionally fresh. After a night of excitement, Abel got up early. After finishing his daily homework, he went to the backyard of the inn to practice with his two-handed sword. However, the sword was indeed a little heavy, so much so that it was difficult for Abel to hold the hilt of the sword steadily in the air, let alone swing it.
"Hu ~~~" Exhaling a mouthful of turbid air, Ai Bo once again circulated his combat qi throughout his body, slowly raising the sword horizontally. The muscles on his arms tightened due to the force, and his combat qi was rapidly being consumed due to Ai Bo's continuous usage.
"You can't go on like this. Your stamina and battle-qi consumption are too great. You won't be able to train for long before you have to meditate to recover.”Winst's voice came from behind.
"Captain, this sword is really heavy, but I like it!”Hearing Winst's voice, Abel put down his sword and smiled.
"As a martial artist, a weapon is your second life.”
"Hehe…Leader, don't worry, I'll hug it even when I sleep."”
"Whatever you like, Albert. It's not the time for you to use it yet.”
"Guild Leader, do you mean you want to take it away from me?”Abel's eyes were filled with intense wariness. If Winst dared to snatch his weapon, he would bite him to death.
"Don't worry, my weapon is fine. I'm not interested in your sword. What I mean is that using it now is too much of a burden. What you need to do now is to get used to its weight. From now on, you have to carry it everywhere, even when you are doing missions and marching. When you get used to its weight, you can use it again.”Seeing the coldness in Abel's eyes, Winst found it funny.
"Oh! I understand!" Hearing that it wasn't his weapon, Abel was relieved.
"Hurry up and recover. After breakfast, we'll go to the Mercenary Association.”With that, Winst walked away.
In the dining room, Abel was sitting on a stool with his sword on his back. From the time he finished meditating and recovered, he had carried the sword on his back to the time he walked to the dining room without using his combat qi. It usually took him only ten minutes to walk, but it took him nearly half an hour. It was fine if it was on flat ground, but the difficulty was when he walked up the stairs. There were a few times when he almost fell over.
In his current state, Avril was the happiest. In order to maintain his balance, Abel couldn't move too much. This also meant that he wouldn't be able to compete with Avril in the fight for food from today onwards.
"Abel, now that you have a weapon, you can continue your weight training. It seems like your injury was worth it.”Brad was still making sarcastic remarks at the side. Abel, who was snatching food, did not have the time to speak and took the time to give him a middle finger.
"That sword is really heavy. Can Abel suddenly take it?”Babasa, who had a deep understanding of the weight of the sword, was a little worried.
"People grow under pressure. Besides, even if you ask him to take the sword down now, he won't agree.”Winst said calmly.
"Right, Abel, you haven't named your sword yet, right? How about I give you a name?”Avril suddenly thought of a crucial question. All good weapons had their own names.
"Name? Do your weapons have names?" This was the first time Abel had heard of this.
"Of course, my sword is called Stars. It was passed down to me by my teacher. The name of the Stars Mercenary Group is also in memory of my teacher.”Winst explained the origin of the mercenary group's name.
"Will's weapon is called the Dragon's Tooth. It used to be the Chief Assassin Ferrero's weapon. He died in our hands during the mission, so the weapon belongs to Will. Avril's bow is called Crescent Moon. We don't know its origin. We asked her, but she didn't tell us. Catherine's staff was made for her by her family at a high price, and she named it Ice Cream.”Brad followed Winst's words and introduced everyone's weapons to Abel. However, when he mentioned Catherine, his face was full of helplessness.
Hearing Brad's words, Catherine's little face turned red, and she looked indescribably cute. The faint smile on her lips showed that she was very satisfied with the name she had thought of.
"Babasa's weapon is called Army Destroyer. It used to be the weapon of an orc general, and he killed many of our people during the war. At the end of the war, he was defeated and killed, but the weapon was missing. By chance, we found it during a mission. As for me, I don't have a magic staff."
"Why?" Abel was curious when he heard that Brad did not have a staff.
"Because that shameless one doesn't have the self-awareness of a mage.”Will's words made Abel even more confused.
Seeing Abel's confused expression, Brad took out a crossbow from his space ring. "This is the Dwarf Master's painstaking design. It can fire 20 arrows in a row. Under its stormy attacks, even the fastest Thief can't escape unscathed.”Brad smiled sinisterly. From his words and Will's attitude, Will must have suffered a loss with this crossbow.
"How did such a top-grade weapon end up in your hands?”
"When I was traveling, I accidentally saved the life of a dwarf. In order to repay me, he gave me this.”Brad was quite proud of his heroic actions.
"Albert, have you thought of a name? Do you need me to help you?" Avril asked Abel with a smile. Beside her, Catherine was also tempted.
"No need! No need! I'll think of it right away!" Hearing the names Crescent Moon and Ice Cream, Abel really didn't have the courage to ask them to name them.
"Why don't we call it 'perish'? It means that the opponent will only be defeated and killed by the sword.”Winst thought of a name for Abel.
"Alright, let's call it death." Abel, who wasn't very educated, couldn't make any comments. Besides, the name was not bad. He was afraid that Catherine would come up with a name like Saqima.
After confirming the name of the sword, everyone went to the Mercenary Association after breakfast. The three-story building was no different from the surrounding buildings, except that there was a sign of a sword and a shield crossing on the outside. The first floor was a place similar to a bar for the mercenaries to rest while waiting for their mission. The second floor was the meeting room. Some missions that required special requests were discussed on the second floor. The third floor was the office of the union's person-in-charge and the staff lounge.
Pushing open the heavy door, everyone came to the lobby on the first floor. Although it was still early in the morning, there were already many mercenaries looking for missions that suited them.
"Hey! Stars Mercenary Group, Winst, where have you been recently? If it wasn't for the fact that there was no record of you accepting missions, I would have thought that you had died outside.”A muscular man saw the crowd and happily went forward to hug Winst. Brad and the others also smiled and greeted the people behind the burly man. Only Abel watched curiously and did not move.
"Haha! You sick cat, I'm still alive and well. It's not my turn for you to die!”Winst was obviously very happy when he saw the burly man. He laughed heartily and joked.
"Cut the crap. Hurry up and tell me where you've been recently. I couldn't find anyone to cooperate with for several missions.”The burly man, who was called Sick Cat, was very curious about the disappearance of Winst and the others.
"Nothing much. I found a kid with good potential and trained him a little. Abel, come here. Let me introduce you. This is the leader of the Ferocious Tiger Mercenary Group, Locke. We've worked together a few times before. Locke, this kid is called Abel. He has just been promoted to an official warrior. It only took him three months to advance from training. How is it? Are you envious?”
"Captain Locke, nice to meet you.”Abel greeted politely.
"Hello, Abel. You will definitely be an outstanding mercenary in the future. Oh my god, three months. You're really a little monster. Winst, you've picked up a treasure.”Loke's eyes widened as he looked at Abel. He was quite envious of the lucky Winst.
"Loke, you old brat, don't look at my people with shining eyes. If you're envious, you should go and find one yourself. Tell me, did anything big happen recently?”Winst saw Locke's gaze and quickly sent Abel away. Who knew if this sick cat would not be able to take the provocation and snatch him away.
"It's not a big deal. It's just one thing that's still on the table.”Locke said after thinking for a moment.
"Oh? What is it?"
"I heard that the Orc Empire has been mobilizing their troops frequently, and their resources have also begun to gather. They might be using troops against the humans again. The Rexton Empire is already mobilizing for war, and many mercenaries have gone there to find a way to earn money.”
"These fools blinded by money, what use are they in the war with the Beastmen? They are nothing more than cannon fodder.”
"You can't say that. Many famous mercenary groups have gone over. The Iron Blood Mercenary Group, the Mad Dragon Mercenary Group, and the Death God Mercenary Group were also prepared to participate in this war.”
"Humph! With just a few hundred of them, it was not enough to set off a wave in the war.”
"It can't be helped. Who asked the mercenary group to limit the number of people to no more than 100?”Locke was helpless about this system.
However, there was nothing they could do about it. Whether it was the Rexton Empire, the Valencia Kingdom, or even the Helmer Trade Union, which relied on mercenaries to survive, they would not allow their mercenary groups to develop too much. This kind of private armed forces was a double-edged sword. If they were not used properly, they would hurt themselves. Therefore, the three major countries put pressure on the Mercenary Union at the same time, strongly demanding that the number of mercenaries in the mercenary group be controlled.
The Mercenary Association had no choice but to compromise with the three countries. Therefore, the largest mercenary group was only a hundred people. However, there were policies and countermeasures. Some mercenary groups with full members could only let the backbone of the group fly out and establish a new mercenary group. However, under this model, two mercenary groups were not as easy to use as one. Therefore, for some large-scale missions, when a mercenary group couldn't handle it themselves, they could only cooperate with other mercenary groups. As for whether they had a tacit understanding and whether the mission could be completed perfectly, these were not things that the country's rulers needed to worry about.
"Let's not talk about this. That's not something we can control. Locke, you're here early in the morning. Do you have a good mission?”Winst obviously did not want to continue this topic that made all the mercenaries hate him.
"There really is one. The Caragal Merchant Association has a merchant group that needs mercenaries to escort them to the Terami Province. Our mercenary group only has 13 people, so it's a little difficult.”
"Is the caravan large? There are only 20 of us in total. If anything happens, I'm afraid I won't be able to take care of them.”
"It's alright. Although we don't have many people, we're all elites. Even if there are bandits, they won't dare to come and provoke us.”Loke was very confident in the strength of both sides. After all, he and Winst were both Sky Warriors. It was impossible for there to be a warrior of this level among the bandits, because no one would become a bandit after reaching this level of strength.
"When are we leaving?" Winst was obviously tempted.
"Tomorrow morning. I came here today to find someone to work with.”
"Alright, it's settled then. Let's go and accept the mission.”
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。