Obligation and Reserve

"Can I really join your party?"

Shien's question caused Vivian and the others to pause slightly.

"What?" Vivian asked, sounding a bit surprised. "Do you have any reservations?"

For a moment, Shien was tempted to answer honestly—yes.

But if he answered like that, it would be too awkward.

So, Shien brought it up indirectly.

"Your party seems to be all female adventurers. Wouldn't it be quite inconvenient to suddenly have a male adventurer like me join?" Shien's implication was that regardless of his own reservations, Vivian and the others should have some.

Vivian and the others hadn't expected Shien to bring this up himself.

Vivian then smiled.

"Perhaps it will have some impact?" Vivian replied honestly rather than dismissively. "But don't let our appearance fool you; we've actually been in similar situations many times before. This is also the Guild's arrangement, and whether it's out of duty or the pride of being senior adventurers, we should wholeheartedly train newcomers."

"Duty and pride?" Shien's eyebrows shot up.

"That's right," Vivian said, looking at Shien with a gentle smile. "We were also newcomers struggling on the path of an adventurer. Back then, we were fortunate to have the Guild's thoughtful arrangements and the guidance of our seniors, which allowed us to reach where we are today. The Guild and adventurers have always been like this, contributing to the adventurer profession, which is why adventurers and the Adventurer's Guild have grown so powerful over the past thousand years."

The fact that adventurers and the Adventurer's Guild had developed to this extent, becoming major forces spread across the world, with such well-established systems in all aspects, was understandably significant.

Even if, on the surface, adventurers and the Adventurer's Guild merely had a mutually beneficial relationship—where one party accepted various requests through the Adventurer's Guild platform to earn rewards and improve their strength, and the other grew stronger through the intermediary role between adventurers and clients—the Guild had indeed implemented many restrictions and proper management to ensure the adventurer profession became increasingly refined.

For instance, if new adventurers were to venture out on their own without any training or assessment, regardless of how well they completed their quests, the probability of them encountering danger and losing their lives would significantly increase.

Therefore, both ethically and logically, the Guild needed to provide a certain level of enlightenment and assessment to newly joined adventurers. This was partly to enable them to complete quests better and partly to prevent those unsuitable for adventuring activities from encountering danger.

Thus, having senior adventurers guide newcomers became a necessity.

For a thousand years, the Guild had cultivated newcomers with such a system, which was why the adventurer profession had grown so robustly.

Vivian and the others had also been newcomers and had received care from their seniors. Since they had received this kindness, they naturally had to repay it.

"Is that so?"

Shien nodded, but he was also muttering to himself.

As someone from another world, Shien knew very well that even if the reasoning was sound, very few people could actually put it into practice.

In his past life, he didn't know how many people, while receiving favors from others, would do ungrateful things for their own benefit.

Even if no one wanted to be ungrateful, many people simply accepted favors without guilt, and how many truly felt grateful and ultimately repaid their benefactors?

Perhaps, here, training newcomers was an undeniable duty for veteran adventurers, but whether everyone would willingly undertake this duty was another matter entirely.

After all, once they became members of the same party, they would need to act together, undertake adventures, and even face life and death situations side-by-side. The strength of each member within a party would directly determine the extent of adventures that party could undertake.

If the party members were strong enough, they could naturally take on more dangerous quests and engage in more profitable work.

If the party members were weak, they would have to consider safety, which would prevent the party from easily accepting certain dangerous quests, making subsequent adventures considerably more troublesome.

In other words, the addition of a newcomer was unexpectedly a significant drag on a veteran adventurer party.

Given this impact, the number of parties that would genuinely want to train newcomers would certainly be very small.

And Vivian's party consisted entirely of beautiful female adventurers, so the impact of a male adventurer joining would surely be even greater.

In this light, the fact that they could claim it was their duty was something Shien at least respected.

Moreover, Vivian had said this:

"At most, it's only for a month. Our party activities have been quite frequent, and we haven't had a good rest in a long time. Let's consider this a chance to relax and unwind. This is the common opinion of everyone in the party, so you don't need to worry."

That's what Vivian said.

Upon hearing this, Shien thought for a moment, then bowed his head to Vivian and the others.

"Then, please take care of me for the next month."

Shien accepted the current situation.

"Alright," Vivian smiled brightly and then suggested, "Without further ado, let's take on some simple quests today to get you familiar with adventurer work."

Shien naturally couldn't refuse this suggestion.

In any case, Shien wanted to understand the work of an adventurer as quickly as possible so he could smoothly improve his strength afterward.

The others also expressed no objections and, along with Shien and Vivian, left the private room together and headed for the Guild's first-floor lobby.

"————"

As Shien's group descended from the second floor and entered the first-floor lobby, the previously noisy lobby suddenly fell silent.

Vivian, Tier, Lumya, and Merika said nothing about this situation, exchanged glances, and walked toward the bulletin board.

Shien, walking with them, shifted his expression and sighed inwardly again.

(Things are indeed getting complicated.)

In the Guild lobby, the gazes of the adventurers were first drawn to Vivian and the others, and then all focused on Shien.

Naturally, Shien, who was acting with Vivian and the others, would attract a great deal of attention, whether he wanted to or not.

Shien noticed the scene, his expression remaining indifferent.

After all, Shien had already anticipated this situation.

A new day! Seeking collections! Seeking recommendations! Seeking tips! Seeking support!

The initial period for a new book is extremely important! I hope all friends can offer some support! Ru Qing is deeply grateful! (T_T)