Locke and Er (III)

Chapter 23: Locke and El (Part 3)

The sun was bright and clear, and today promised to be fine weather.

The academy had just given the students a break, and Fatty Shi immediately took on a private job that kept Locke running around in circles. After three exhausting days of busywork, they finally got all the necessary supplies ready. Now, he and Yuri were loading iron cages one by one from their rented house into a four-wheeled long-distance carriage. These iron cages were needed for this mission, mainly to set traps for dealing with small magical beasts.

Yuri was a student at Dawnlight Academy and also a teaching assistant for the equestrian instruction major, standing at Black Iron Rank 2. Just like Locke, he was a working student and often teamed up with others to take on low-level missions for the Mercenary Guild to earn some extra pocket money.

After all fourteen iron cages were loaded onto the carriage and secured tightly with ropes, Locke checked the required gear once more. Making sure nothing was missing, he got down from the carriage, took out a water bag, twisted open the pine wood stopper, and drank a few mouthfuls of water. Everything was ready; they just had to wait for Fatty Shi and the others to return before they could set off.

A so-called private job generally meant a mission that mercenaries took on by negotiating pay directly with an employer in private, without notarization or approval from the Mercenary Guild. Although this avoided the guild's commission fee, it greatly increased the risk of the mission. Instances of going back on one's word afterwards, turning hostile and refusing to acknowledge agreements, black-on-black robberies, and moonlighting as bandits were not uncommon. However, the Mercenary Guild's cut was simply too ruthless, taking a bite out of the employer and another out of the mercenary; combined commissions for some well-paying tasks could add up to thirty or forty percent. Therefore, if the conditions were decent, mercenaries did not mind taking on some private jobs at their own risk.

"Hey, Brother Locke, what are you guys up to?" El strode over wearing a jacket, peered at those iron cages in front of the carriage, and then poked his head to look inside the boxy cabin. "Oh, you're going out on another mission."

Whenever Locke saw El, he felt a headache coming on. In the past half-year, running into El twice meant he had suffered bad luck twice. The first time was a loss of wealth—of course, Locke would never admit that he had lost his head a bit to female beauty back then. He believed that if El hadn't acted shamelessly by refusing to admit defeat and clinging to his leg, he probably would have returned to his room long ago, and that stinky hussy wouldn't have had time to steal so many things. The second time was pure unmerited disaster; he kindly lent El an outer cloak only to be mistaken for El's accomplice and beaten up for nothing. What made him most furious was that he couldn't even fight back. They were all ordinary people like old grandmas, old men, young wives, and uncles; he dared not and could not strike back against them, so he could only swallow the loss in plain sight.

Therefore, in Locke's eyes, El was a living jinx, and nothing good ever came of running into him. He had better keep his wits about him and be careful today to avoid another bout of bad luck.

Yet El himself lacked any self-awareness about being a jinx, wandering around aimlessly in broad daylight. Having crossed paths with Locke twice, El considered them friends already and acted all chummy, calling him brother. Just like that, after looking at the mission supplies prepared on the carriage, El felt he ought to offer his younger brother some advice as a senior.

"Tsk, I'm telling you, Brother Locke, always going after these low-rank magical beasts is neither interesting nor does it have any future. As a mercenary, you should set your sights further. Places like the Magical Beast Forest deep in the Sunset Mountains, the Doom Beach of the Kingdom of Chigda, the underground caves of Urubaha, and the Ruins Archipelago of the Tranquil Sea are the places where mercenaries ought to go adventuring. Although those places are a bit more dangerous, the harvests are extremely generous. Didn't the Unicorn Mercenary Corps return from the Magical Beast Forest last time? That trip made them a huge fortune, with all forty-three members of the entire troupe each splitting over a hundred Gold Fudes." El babbled away enthusiastically.

Locke rolled his eyes. This fellow was talking without standing in the pain; every place name he rattled off was a recognized danger zone on the continent. Sending a Black Iron rank mercenary like him to those places was practically serving himself up as food for the magical beasts. He just listened to street gossip without considering how many people the Unicorn Mercenary Corps originally had. One hundred and twenty-five Silver Rank and above experts entered the Magical Beast Forest, and in less than a month, only forty-three returned. After turning in the mission, the captain and vice-captain—two Gold rank powerhouses—squatted in the Mercenary Guild hall and cried like five or six-year-old children, a sight that moved anyone to pity.

"I'm saying, big boss, do you not have anything better to do with your time, wandering around aimlessly in broad daylight? Go do whatever you're supposed to do. If you don't understand mercenary business, stop spouting nonsense." Locke was completely blunt.

"Hoh, you brat refuse to accept this, don't you? Big Brother here is a mercenary too, and a Silver mercenary at that." Looking very pleased with himself, El fished out a Silver mercenary badge issued by the Mercenary Guild from somewhere and pinned it to the chest of his jacket.

"Eh? You, a big mob boss, getting a Silver mercenary badge for what? You don't even use it." Locke was quite puzzled.

"He got this mercenary badge back when he did missions in the academy. It was originally Black Iron, but later, after he became a big boss and advanced to Silver Rank, he went to the Mercenary Guild and exchanged it for a Silver mercenary badge." Fatty Shi's voice came from nearby, answering for El.

Locke looked up to see Fatty Shi and Telman returning on two horses.

Telman was an enforcement officer in the academy's Enforcement Department, standing at Silver Rank 1, and also one of Locke's few close friends at Dawnlight Academy.

Coming closer, Fatty Shi pointed at El and said to Yuri and Telman, "You guys get acquainted. His name is Brunan Evenbert. He also graduated from Dawnlight Academy, so he counts as your senior. He was in the same class as me back then, but after graduation, he became the boss of a street gang organization around here."

"Hello, I'm Yuwen Rides, just call me Yuri."

"Hello, my name is Vipoli Telman."

El nodded in greeting to them, considering introductions complete. Then El asked curiously, "Fatty, where are you guys going on a mission?"

Fatty Shi said, "Christo Hills. There's a mine over there that discovered Gold-Eating Rats. We have to go wipe them out."

Gold-Eating Rats were a low-rank, small, gregarious magical beast that loved eating metallic ores, growing as large as cats and dogs while resembling mice. They were cowardly yet inherently vicious; once their ferocity was triggered, they tended to cling to their target relentlessly to the bitter end. When ordinary people encountered Gold-Eating Rats, the first rule was not to panic, to try their best to look threatening, form a standoff, and then slowly back away in order to escape safely. If one had awakened Battle Qi, even a Bronze One-Star could easily handle a lone Gold-Eating Rat. However, Gold-Eating Rats rarely traveled alone, often calling upon friends and summoning numerous of their kind to swarm and encircle an enemy upon encountering one.

In the specialized course on Magical Beast Lore that Locke studied, the Gold-Eating Rat was extremely famous because legend had it that the ferocious magical beast encountered by the very first warrior to awaken Battle Qi was a Gold-Eating Rat. Fortunately for him, it was a solitary one, as Gold-Eating Rats only left the group to find mates during mating season. Otherwise, that warrior would never have had the chance to awaken Battle Qi, and humanity might have had to endure another millennium of darkness.

Among the diet of the many subterranean magical beasts, Gold-Eating Rats mostly ranked near the top. Therefore, to a human mining operation, discovering Gold-Eating Rats was a major event. They had to hunt the Gold-Eating Rats to extinction, or at least eliminate the female rat king of the colony, before the remaining Gold-Eating Rats would leave the area. Otherwise, once the rat population grew, it would inevitably attract other ferocious subterranean predators, easily spelling disaster for the mine.

The Roman Empire, one of the three major empires of Galintea, had once experienced such a famous mining incident. That was the Roman Empire's largest gold-producing mine, where a mismanaged infestation of Gold-Eating Rats ran wild, eventually attracting two gigantic Unicorn Rock Pythons that occupied the mine and caused the deaths of over three thousand miners. In the end, the Roman Empire dispatched a Sword Saint and over sixty Gold rank experts, paying the price of heavy casualties, just to slay the two Unicorn Rock Pythons. Afterwards, over forty noble families were implicated, beheaded, and had their assets confiscated because of this incident. Following this event, all mines across the continent took it as a warning: whenever a Gold-Eating Rat was discovered, every single one must be killed without exception.

"What's wrong, didn't Steve and the others come?" Seeing that Fatty Shi and the other person went out two and came back two without managing to recruit anyone, Locke asked with some puzzlement.

"Hn, these guys care more about sex than friendship. Isn't Art Class 2-3 going sketching and painting in Bentzgau? Steve took the two Cole brothers and rushed over to play the knight in shining armor. Yeah, guarding beauties beats crawling into mine tunnels with us any day." Fatty Shi was quite annoyed. He had been too busy preparing items while taking on this private job and forgot to reach out early to gather a team, ending up realizing they were short-handed right as they were about to set off.

Hearing Fatty Shi say they were short-handed, El's eyes lit up from the side. "Hey, hey, Fatty, how about me? Why don't I go with you guys?"

Fatty Shi paused. "El? You want to go? You're doing just fine as a big mob boss, why come on an adventure with us? Besides, this is a private job, and the risks are huge."

Locke firmly opposed the idea. "Fatty Shi, don't listen to his nonsense. If a big mob boss like him wants to go on an adventure, he should head to the Magical Beast Forest or Doom Beach or places like that. He wouldn't deign to take on small business like killing Gold-Eating Rats. He's just joking."

El said with a serious expression, "I'm not joking. To be honest, Fatty, you know as well that I became this big mob boss out of necessity; the brothers forced me into this position so I had no choice. They handle all the day-to-day matters, and as a big boss with nothing to do, I'm completely sick of strolling the streets every day. I dream of going on an adventure and miss the days of following everyone around to do mercenary missions back at the academy. You've known me for many years and know my character. What do you say, can I do it? Anyway, you're short-handed right now, and adding my strength should be enough to handle the risks."

"This..." Fatty Shi hesitated.

"No way." Locke objected once more. If they got entangled with this jinx, it would be best for everyone to call off the mission and go home to sleep with a clean slate, otherwise bad luck was bound to follow.

"Fatty, you know what attribute the Battle Qi I cultivate is, and you're well aware of my innate skill. Bringing me along to the mine will have huge benefits." El added another weight to the scale.

Eh? This fellow even had an innate skill? Locke's curiosity was piqued.

"Locke, what is your reason for opposing his joining?" Fatty Shi asked Locke.

"This..." Locke thought to himself that he couldn't possibly say the man was a jinx and that everyone would suffer bad luck if he joined. "He hasn't done missions with us before, so I'm worried we won't coordinate well."

He finally managed to find an excuse and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"I will definitely obey orders," El said.

"You promise?" Fatty Shi asked.

"I promise."

"Alright, then welcome to the adventuring party. I am the captain, Shredder. I'll give you half an hour to make preparations and then come back to assemble; we're setting off immediately. We're heading to Christo Hills this time, and it's estimated to take twenty-some days for the round trip. No problem, right?" Fatty Shi made the final decision.

"No problem. Um, Fatty, oh no, Captain, I think we'd better meet up at the Red Raven Tavern. That's a gathering place for private jobs; you can have my uncle show you the ledger for that commission. We can pick up any tasks that happen to be on the way—just say I sent you. Actually, that old stubborn fool will believe you as long as he sees Locke." Right after joining the team, El delivered a generous gift.

Fatty Shi was tempted. It turned out the Red Raven Tavern had such a back-alley channel; this was essentially poaching from the Mercenary Guild. Still, it was a great place for mercenaries like them. After all, tasks accepted through a tavern carried lower risks than private negotiations, and the tavern owner wouldn't provide guarantees for unfamiliar or irrelevant people.

"Fine then, we'll meet at the Red Raven Tavern."

In fact, before Fatty Shi even figured out how to phrase things to the Red Raven Tavern owner, Garilando saw Locke and, hearing that they were going to complete a private job, proactively pulled out the small ledger recording the commission tasks, beckoning Locke and the others over to see if there was anything they could accomplish along the way.

Fatty Shi looked over the small ledger and found that most of the entries on it were commissions for running errands and purchasing items on behalf of others. If these commissions were posted at the Mercenary Guild, they would basically be errand jobs for Bronze or Black Iron mercenaries, but taking them from the guild yielded poor returns at best, useful only for picking things up incidentally along the way. Getting them through the Red Raven Tavern, however, offered enough pay for someone to make a dedicated trip.

After discussing it with everyone, Fatty Shi accepted seventeen commissions. Calculating it out, if they completed all of them, everyone could make an extra Gold Fude in income—truly a decent haul. Garilando also remarked that although these commissions weren't massive in scale and the pay wasn't high, their advantage lay in sheer volume, and he often tore his hair out trying to find trustworthy mercenaries. If they performed well this time, everyone was welcome to come here to pick up private jobs and earn extra money in the future.

El walked in wearing a brand-new fire lizard leather armor. Leather armor made from this kind of fire lizard hide could effectively maintain body temperature while repelling mosquitoes, flies, snakes, and scorpions, making it top-tier equipment for subterranean exploration. It wasn't cheap, being high-end gear that ordinary mercenary adventurers couldn't afford. Pinned to the left breast of the leather armor was that Silver mercenary badge.

El loudly greeted everyone he knew in the tavern, eager to let the whole world know he was a mercenary and was now heading out on an adventure. To Locke's surprise, his uncle, tavern owner Garilando, didn't seem to mind El joining Locke's adventuring party at all; on the contrary, he gladly handed each person a glass of Blackberry Mead as if happy to see it happen, wishing everyone a smooth journey and success in all things.

After leaving the city, Fatty Shi rode his horse close to the carriage and asked El—who was sitting next to the driver's seat and bantering with Locke, who was lounging in the back—"Why does your uncle trust Little Locke so much that the moment he saw him, he proactively brought out the mission commission ledger?"

This question was also quite puzzling to Locke. He had only met Old Gal twice, and the first time involved a physical brawl at that—how was it that Old Gal viewed him with such favor?

El lazily cast a glance at Locke and answered listlessly, "The old fool said Little Locke has great character. Even though he was tricked by a stinky hussy the first time, it was only because he was upright and kind-hearted that he fell for it. The second time, when he was wronged and beaten by those ordinary people, he managed to exercise restraint and not fight back, preferring to take a severe beating himself rather than hurt anyone. Young people who maintain their own sense of proportion and judgment like that are truly rare nowadays, which is why the old fool appreciates Little Locke so much and even told me to learn from him. He doesn't even stop to think that I'm a Silver-rank expert who'd rather run away than turn back and strike at the ordinary people chasing me; that kind of tolerance and magnanimity is way better than Little Locke's."

"Tsk..." Locke retorted, "Don't forget you were stark naked at the time. You barely had time to run, let alone dare to turn around and fight back?"

Everyone burst into loud laughter.