Chapter Ten: The Quest Part Three

How did Brock get that silver-class quest? It was illegal for newcomers to obtain that in the city, yet he said the Libra Guild didn’t seem to mind. It was strange since they were the New Beginning’s only police guild. All of their members were braves of the justice gods. They were strict in upholding the law. Why would they allow this? Unless —

“It’s a loophole,” I gasped in realization. Everyone focused on me. When they silently encouraged me to go on, I continued, “The rules stated we’re not allowed to get that within the city. The keywords there, within the city, that means anyone can get or posts a dangerous quest when you are —”

“Outside the city,” Li finished.

“Right, the quest starts in three days,” Brock said. “We have to be at the Azure Dragon Gate by eight in the morning.”

“Azure Dragon Gate?” Wilt tapped his chin. “If I remembered correctly, that’s on the eastern part of the Outer Wall.” His eyes bulged. “That means this quest is —”

“In the Yellow Zone,” the rest of us gasped.

“Right, so who’s excited for this adventure?” Brock asked.

No one said a single word. Recognizing the dangers in that place, we went pale that he got us a one-way ticket back to Earth. I was much paler as if my soul was about to seep out.

“Do you’ve any idea what you have done?” Wilt berated. “You should have told us before you signed us up.”

“You shouldn’t sign us up in the first place,” Katie snarled.

“I know how dangerous this is,” Brock said, “but we have a good chance to live this through because —”

“We don’t care!” Katie roared. “Alex, please give some sense to this… this dunderhead.”

The Finnish girl nodded. “Brock, I understand you’re doing this for us. We wanted to have a guild in a short time as much as you do, but this is a high-class quest we are talking about. You should have consulted us before you made this decision. We are supposed to be a team. Whatever happens in the Yellow Zone, we’ll be putting our lives into completing this quest. Do you think we’re ready for this?”

Brock’s grin fell after a long look at our dismaying faces. “I’m sorry, I should’ve told you this before I signed us up,” he sighed. “But I’m going to return this scroll to make things right.”

“Good,” Katie said with her arms crossed. “Apology accepted.”

“Juice’s still warm, though.” Li dejected while holding his bottle.

“Quiet,” Wilt hushed him. “She’ll freak out again if you say that.”

“I already heard that.” Katie glared at the two, making the rest of us anxiously prepared for another of her outburst.

“No, no, that’s still my fault,” the jock said. “I’ll buy new drinks after I return this.” We were a bit surprised by his sincerity. He turned around and walked dejectedly. “Guess we can kiss that nine thousand chaffs goodbye.”

“What?” we all snapped again.

“Wait, Brock,” Katie exclaimed as her hostile tone disappeared.

“Huh?” He stopped to glance over his shoulder.

“You said something about nine thousand chaffs, right?”

“Uh, yeah. There’s a nine thousand chaffs reward for completing the quest.”

Alex gasped, “That’s fifteen hundred for each of us, or we can surely buy —”

“A flag of our own,” Wilt finished. Uh-oh, there was a sudden change in their tones. I didn’t like where this was going. “Can we take a look at that for a second?”

Brock blinked. “Sure.”

Upon opening, Wilt read the scroll’s content. “It says here we are to escort a Jormungand caravan back to their home turf. Something about transporting luxury goods.”

Brock nodded in confirmation. “That’s why they hired about three hundred braves for this escort quest.”

We dropped our jaws after hearing that. We never thought they could hire that many just to guard some caravan.

“Three hundred,” Katie gasped in disbelief. “What are they guarding? Unicorn tears?”

“And wyvern scales, snipe furs, gemwoods,” Brock added. “Lots of expensive stuff I’ve heard. Well, I better get going, so let me take that.”

“Hold on,” Wilt exclaimed. “Maybe this isn’t bad. It’s only an escort job. Besides, we’ve got three hundred with us in this quest.”

“Technically, it’s two hundred ninety-four.” Li corrected, not counting us, six.

“And some hundred Jormungand warriors to back us up.” Wilt read the rest of the scroll.

Uh-oh! They slowly changed their mind, all because of a big reward.

“T-t-this isn’t right,” I stuttered in protest while trying to come up with a reason not to take this quest. I couldn’t risk my life going out there. “W-we’re still inexperienced. Who knows w-w-we m-might attack by some m-monsters or outlaws.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you earlier,” Brock explained. “We got briefed by the Jormungands. They said that outlaws don’t have more than fifty members, so they don’t attack a caravan this big. The same goes for monsters. Plus, we’ve got our powers to defend ourselves.”

“Sounded like we have the advantage,” Alex swallowed. “So we’re taking the job?”

We all turned to our leader. He pondered for a bit before tilting his head. “If everyone here is confident that they are ready, we’ll take this quest.”

Li, Alex, and Brock nodded in assurance. They then glanced at me to hear my answer.

“What about you?” I quickly glanced at Katie, hoping her strong dislike towards Brock might veto on taking this quest.

After some consideration, she sighed, “Fine, whatever. Nine thousand chaffs is a pretty sweet deal. But just this once. Just once. Until we get our guild.”

“Then it settled,” Wilt concluded. “We are taking this quest.”

I bit my lower lip when they all nodded to seal the deal.

“Does this mean I’m not in trouble?” Brock grinned sheepishly.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Mister,” Katie hissed. “You’re still paying for those drinks.” The rest agreed, to which the jock sighed in compliance.

“You okay, Sam?” Alex noticed my face still paled.

“Y-yeah, don’t worry.” I raised a fake smile while grasping my legs from shaking. I was afraid to tell them my reason not to be in this quest. Of course, they would feel sorry for me if I told them. They’d probably kick me out of this party out of pity or might burden them from accomplishing our goals. Perhaps, we’d no longer be friends anymore.

After three days of preparing for our first high-class quest, the gang met up in the station across our apartment by dawn. We took a trolley and headed to our destination. Traveling to the Jormungand territory was five days and another five days for the return trip, so we packed a ten-day worth of supplies. According to Brock, our employers would be the ones providing meals to the hired ones. There were also public baths for each caravansary, a way station for caravans.

We arrived at the Azure Dragon Gate, a double steel gate with a Chinese castle-tower on top. The Outer Wall was as tall as the city wall, with numerous war guilds manning on top to guard against whatever threats in the Yellow Zone. Due to its sheer size, no one had maintained it for a very long time. Because of that, thick vegetation like mosses, shrubs, and other small plants covered its surface for centuries. That was why the Outer Wall was green from afar.

Once everyone exited the trolley, there were hundreds already assembled at the gate. The Jormungands wore olive-green armors, which could tell us apart between them and the hired ones like us wearing casual clothes. A pair of Jormungand members came forward and asked for our scroll. Wilt handed it to them for inspection. After checking our signatures, one of them stamped it with a seal that bore their crest. They then headed to the other arrivals after returning our scroll.

Later, we met Sally and Travis. The pair had joined the Ruby Lynx, a copper-class adventurer guild. It was also their first high-class quest, and they got dozens of experienced and novice members with them. The gang never bore grudges to those who left after we formed our party, plus we’d been keeping in touch with them as friends.

We headed for the caravan in the middle of the crowd. I was expecting a train of horses or camels or whatever animals they used here for transport. Instead, we gawked at the enormous, lumbering creatures, hundreds of them sitting on the ground.

“It’s a giant fat tapir-headed elephant thingy.” Katie described these creatures strangely the same as mine. They were thrice the size of an elephant, with a head of a tapir, short tusks, and elongated neck capable of turning its head behind its shoulders. Each of them had their backs covered in almost two tons of cargo and gears with thick ropes and nets to secure them.

“They’re called behemoths,” Sally said. “I’ve heard these gentle creatures can drink so much water, they can survive the long journey like camels.”

“But we’re going to ride those, are we?” Katie asked in an eager tone.

Sally shook her head. “The Jormungands said that they are used for carrying cargoes. We’ll be on foot for the entire trip.”

I must admit, it looked fun to ride one of those creatures, but we were disappointed that we couldn’t.

“Everyone, gather up!” a Jormungand member cried. “Our commander has something to say!”

In the middle of the caravan, two people stood on top of one of the behemoths. One of them was Indian, fully dressed in armor from one of India’s ancient eras.

“Hello, everyone,” he greeted aloud. “I’m Commander Raja, and I’ll be in charge of this caravan. This is Lieutenant Del Rio, my second-in-command. She’ll be in charge of all of you, hired ones. Hope everybody’s fine today. Let’s all get along and help each other out on this ten-day adventure.”

The crowd applauded, though many like Wilt, Alex, and myself were making neutral stares.

Lieutenant Del Rio was a bit of a mystery. She had pony-tailed red hair and was quite tall for a teenage girl, wearing medieval armor with modern clothes underneath. I wasn’t sure whether she was from the Americas or Europe, or which era she hailed from.

“Alright, listen up,” she exclaimed in a haughty tone. “I got one rule and one rule only. Obey our command, and you’ll live to get paid. We’re not threatening you. We’re just telling you how to stay alive once we’re out of this gate. Is that clear?”

Almost everyone nodded in reluctance. Every word the lieutenant said was coated in callousness. Many of us had second thoughts about this quest, but that all changed when the horns were blown.

“Everyone, let’s move out!” Commander Raja shouted when the behemoths began to rise on their feet.

“Alright, gang,” Wilt said as the steel gate swung open, “let’s stick together no matter what.”