"Mrs. Fern, the private plane is ready."
Minnie nodded as the customer service worker quickly left the room. In the room, the top people in the Gladiator Guild where present. The guild master Minnie Fern, the guild's right hand William Black, the guilds left hand Jared Miles, The White mage Sean Myers, the shield Marvin Robinson, the Gladiator goddess Jessica Perks, the water saint Mary Evans, and the sober alchemist Misty Jones.
"We will continue our discussion on the plane." Minnie said this coolly as she stood up from her chair. Her right and left hands quickly followed beside her. The rest walked a little behind them as they left their hotel suite and walked towards a crowed of paparazzi.
"Mrs. Fern, could you tell us what you think about the closing of old money?"
"Miss goddess, what are your thoughts on your growing fan base?"
"Water saint, when will you do another heal for charity raid." The group was bombarded with questions but they remained their cool as walked to their jet. At some point, Minnie began to become agitated by the clicking of Cameras. Her eyebrows twitched as she grew more annoyed. Some experienced cameramen who saw this, quickly backed away.
After a few more clicks, Minnie stopped walking. She then glared at the paparazzi. [Intimidate] was activated as many of the paparazzi felt shivers down their spin and could not move an inch. After being satisfied with the noise reduction, Minnie continued to walk towards the jet.
When they got into the jet, Misty could not help but laugh.
"Did you see their faces? I bet some of them peed their pants!" Marvin and Sean joined in on the laughter.
"Jeez when will they learn? Don't take pictures of people randomly." Mary said this calmly as she grabbed a book to read.
"Why are paparazzi still even a thing?" Jessica whined.
" Probably so that the government will have a way of keeping tracks of us. You know that they are worried of our power. Guilds are getting stronger and governments are becoming a thing of the past." Everyone nodded as they heard William say this.
"Many governments do not realize that things have changed and old politicians are still trying to hold on to their power. It is a sad sight to see." Everyone also agreed to Minnie's statement. They all sighed as they were given drinks by the waiter. Indeed, many things have changed over 5 years. The kids from before had grown up. Marvin had become a bulky beast of a man, a true meat shield. Jared had gotten skinnier due to the stress of being the left hand and he had gotten quieter. William did not change much; it was just that his aura had become darker which caused many people to not get close to him. Sean had changed the most. He had grown to be quite handsome and had a tendency to save damsels in distress which caused people to nickname him white mage instead of white knight. Jessica had become quite the bombshell and many boys joined their guild just because of her. Mary on the other hand was pretty but not like Jessica. She earned praise mostly due to her charitable nature and vast healing abilities.
Minnie ended up becoming the guild master of the gladiators after a vote. Like Jessica, Minnie also became more beautiful with age but she mostly wore a helmet so many people only knew her for her skills in battle and her the legacy of her family name which survived in the new era.
Everyone turned to Misty who grabbed every alcoholic beverage she could find. Misty the 'sober' alchemist was one of the first bright members who joined their guild in the beginning. She warmed her way into a top position and she was infamous for making crazy potions when drunk. Her name was quite ironic for that reason.
"Misty we just got on the plane..." Mary said softly to Misty as she gave a few glasses back to the waiter.
"I know, I know but we have like 6 hours until we get to America so I might as well design new potion ideas." Misty grabbed another glass from the waiter as she smiled innocently. Mary could only shake her head. She was not planning to force Misty as she knew that Misty made the best buffer tonics when she was drunk.
"Now lets get back to our discussion. Black Robin hood, what is their game?" Minnie's eyes turned cold as she said the name. Everyone straightened their composure and became serious.
"From all the sources I have seen, it is more likely one person and not a guild. The footage always shows only one figure leaving a box of equipment that are at the same levels as top class guilds. The pattern of this figure is consistent and leaves a trail. If we do not count the fake robin hoods, we can trace him going to parts of Africa, Asia, Europe and Ares. He is very unpredictable so it is hard for us to know where he will land next." Sean stated this matter of factly.
"Uhh, actually, he is in Clover right now." William said lazily as he read the news on his tablet. Sean quickly grabbed the tablet from William and read it thoroughly before slowly looking at Minnie.
"It has been discovered that he is in Clover right now." Minnie rolled her eyes as she heard this.
"Is that really all we know? He is a wanderer who likes giving high grade equipment to the poor? Am I supposed to believe that? I need stats! How strong is he? What is his level, class, weapons, etc. Is he good, bad? Give me something!" The plane was completely silent. Misty silently sipped her vodka as she looked at the three main information collectors, William, Sean and Jessica.
William was unaffected by Minnie's oppressive aura. Sean was quickly trying to find what he could on criminal and guild interfaces and Jessica calling reporters to see if they had any new information on the man. After all was said and done, the two regrettably could not find anything.
Minnie sighed as she saw that no new information was found of the man.
"Well I have seen all the caught footage of robin hood multiple times now and I have a few guesses on his stats." Everyone turned when they heard this.
"Tell me what you think of the man." Minnie ordered. William smiled as he heard her approval.
"First of all, this person is stronger than me in speed at least. I am unable to even calculate how high his agility stats must be. He is definitely past level 100 and as for class, he most likely has a agility focused class like an assassin, rouge, Ranger etc. If his class is a guardian or something, I will just end my life here.
"Hey are you trying to start something?" Marvin fumed as he heard that last comment.
"Anyway, this is just an analysis, I can't know anything until I have battled him."
"Hey! He is ignoring me again."
"If we do find out more about him, what do you plan to do?" William inquired. Minnie folded her arms as she heard this.
"If he is good, I will welcome him aboard our alliance. If his intentions are rooted in an evil place, we will exterminate him before he causes harm to anybody."
"I highly doubt he has any evil intentions. He is literally giving high grade weapons to the poor! He is changing lives." Misty commented as she sipped her tequila.
"That is if the weapons are going to them. In many cases, tv stations become involved and would broadcast the donations of these high classed equipment and these 'lucky' people are never seen again." Jessica stated as she put down her phone.
"I see... thieves must have taken their weapons and probably killed them for it." Marvin guessed. William shook his head as his face changed to one of disgust.
"Poor men stealing from poor men? Nope. Top or medium sized guilds stealing from struggling guilds is more like it. They would send some of their assassins to finish the job. As soon as those men see a shine of hope, their throats are slit off and their weapons are snatched." Marvin was flabbergasted at the thought. Indeed some of the weapons were tempting but to outright kill a struggling adventurer for it was out of line.
"That is why they changed their way of posting news about the hooded charity man. They would first point out which country he is in and they would only name the donation site long after the weapons are given away." Mary added this as she popped into the conversation.
"That makes sense. At least this way, less lives are lost." Marvin remarked happily. Jessica sighed as she thought of the whole thing.
"Even if they don't say the donation site, some guilds will still try and dig it out. I don't think robin hood is the bad guy but all the people trying to take away from his good deeds are." Marvin nodded to this statement.
"I bet the Smith Guild is one of these assholes." Minnie and the rest groaned as they heard this name.
"Ugh please don't say their name. It gives me migraines." Sean whined.
"The fact that the guild association has not blacklisted them makes me think my guess is right and that the guild master is giving one of the elders some benefits." Remarked Minnie as she remembered the rejection letter she got from the association a few months ago. It was the 3rd time she had tried to get the Smith guild blacklisted from the organization for their shady behavior.
"Minnie you can't blame me for not warning you before hand. I told you we should just kill them where they stand before they get too big but, no. We had to do it the civil way." William complained as he yanked his tablet from Sean's hand.
"Indeed. It would have been easy to slit their throats. Many lives and careers could have been saved that way." Minnie's eyes turned cold as she remembered her naive mistake back then.
"My swords are sharpened. I only await captains order and I would do it in a heart beat." Everyone turned to Jared who suddenly had his top tier dual katanas out in the open. Jared's blind loyalty sent shivers through Marvin's spine. He sometimes felt like his best friend would kill even him if Minnie asked for it. Minnie shook her head as she sighed.
"It is too late now. They know we have a vendetta out for them so we cannot do anything or we may be blacklisted instead. We can only hope that their shady ways can be brought out for the world to see. " Jared put down his katana back in his ring as he heard this.
"By the way, November the 6th passed a few weeks ago." As soon as Misty said this nonchalantly, everyone turned to her. She awkwardly looked around her.
"What? You guys have that date circled on the calendar every year. I thought it meant something."The air only turned more silent as she said this.
Minnie looked out at the window as she remembered that person. She had only truly known him for a little while yet he had seen through her so easily. Even after so many years has passed, she still did not know what type of person Erin Silver really was. Well it did not matter now. Many had died after the tutorial was over. It was not shocking that 1 out of the 8 met an unfortunate event in 2 months. Minnie turned back to the mourning others and cleared her throat to get their attention.
"Lets talk about our next problem, enlistment control. We are now a well known guild, we have to change our application procedure to a more rigorous one. Do any of you have any suggestions?" Everyone quickly pitched in as they took their minds out of the past. Although they missed their friend and remembered him dearly, there were too many things that they needed to focus on. There was no time to reminisce.
Misty just continued to gulp her beer as new ideas began to flow out of her brain and into her personal notebook.