"Honestly, I can't believe the number of desperate Stone Rankers shamelessly begging for handouts these days."
The mage followed up the quip from the armored man, and I was starting to panic slightly.
However, it was less due to intimidation, and more because I didn't know how to get out of this situation without causing certain problems.
I was pretty strong after all, right?
I think I am...
I'm not really sure.
"How about this," the mage offered in a faux sincere tone, "If you leave right now, I won't bother you the next time I catch you outside the city gates."
His face looked legitimately disgusted, any of his negative past experiences with Stone Rankers being twisted into a mindset that they were the sole cause of all of his problems.
The desire to blame an external source for issues, as opposed to using logic and telling it how it is.
'Typical discrimination, nothing I haven't seen before while out in the woods.'
'Honestly, these guys feel kind of cliché when compared to some of the insane shit from back then..."
'Let's see, how am I meant to get them to back off... wait!'
I remembered how the bigger kids used to always maintain dominance by having each person beaten up just once, and every time they needed someone to back down they would just puff out their chests and stand in an aggressive manner.
These guys likely already met plenty of people more powerful than them in their travels, so the mage equivalent of telling them to fuck off would probably be something like... this?
I breathed in and closed my eyes, waking my arcane powers and guiding them through my body as if I was preparing to condense mana for a spell.
"Don't you get it? I'm telling you to get out of this guild post... NOW." The mage was starting to get kind of annoying, he was clearly acting like the armored guy's lackey and replicating his attitude in order to keep a good impression.
Looking like one of those lame bully's sidekick that exists solely to hype them up.
The first step is to crush his seniority.
"Mage boy. Look at me."
"Mage boy? Are you kidding? You look like you haven't even hit puberty yet, are you even an adult?"
Add in just a little bite to throw him off.
"Of course I'm older than fourteen, how else would I have joined Pentaz retard. Also did you not hear what I said? Or is your magic sense just that pathetic? Look. At. Me."
"Why? What do- a- I..."
The overly angry expression vanished as his face became serious, entering damage control mode instantly after noticing what I was doing.
First step done, now it's an even playing field from here on out.
"You... you know I can get you in some serious trouble if I report you for not updating your ID!?"
'So it was going to be like this, of course the guy doubles down on me.'
The way to beat this kind of argument was...
"Not updating? I'm still a Stone Ranker you know... wait don't tell me you think that I'm not because I'm stronger than you? Dude aren't you just weak as fuck or something?"
I entered into full shutdown mode. And if he was going to double down, I could do it too.
"Also, I have a feeling that even if you think I'm lying about still being Stone Rank and reported me, the guild would probably just start giving me special treatment for being Geode Rank. After all, I was level zero just a few days ago, do you really think that they would be sticklers about some dumb rule when a promising potential powerhouse is ripe for the picking? They have battles to win, or does that simple logic not fly with your single digit IQ?"
The guy kind of just stared, as if he was legitimately trying to catchup with my change of attitude, my insults, and my reasoning all at once.
A certain number of people were already paying their full attention to our interaction, and Kimi who had just wandered over to see what I was doing now gazed on dumbfounded, like a kid who just watched their cute pet cat murder a random animal for the first time.
'chipmunk? I guess they are still wild animals...'
Behind the main counter, Jina had been preparing to take action by asking some of the Geode Rank adventurers who wanted to get on her good side and woo her to intervene. However, she paused and held back her wrath, staring on with widened eyes as she decided to see how this would play out before attempting to bring it to a stop herself.
'I thought he was timid and sheltered... what was that earlier ineptitude with social interaction? It's almost like our little chipmunk deals with this on a daily basis. But this might be a little cute too, I want to see more!'
The Geode Rank armored man who had originally thrown some harsh words my way was clearly annoyed that the mage guy had taken it to such a degree and dragged him down as well, but he stayed silent and slowly put distance between him and the mage, fully intending to leave him with the hole he had dug.
"A- you- a few days!? HAH! You think I'm actually that stupid?"
"I mean yeah, didn't I literally just insult your intellig-"
"SHUT UP! We'll be seeing each other."
The guy just abruptly walked off and left, and I realized the guy wearing the armor wasn't around anymore either.
'I guess that's that huh, you never know at what point they'll figure out they screwed up. But I don't really like how serious he sounded.'
I sighed heavily, brushing past some of the people who had gathered as I went to get my equipment from my room.
Find a quest? Earn money? Right now I need to power level for a bit rather than give this situation a chance to escalate.
I wouldn't treat this like a joke.
First of all, there was a chance the guy could be completely serious.
He was prideful, provacative, and a bit dumb, but he was still a Geode Ranker.
Coming down from my room with my puffed up adventuring bag full of rations and other items, I made for the doors of the lobby, intending to spend time hunting without the restraints of a quest in order to achieve Geode Rank as soon as possible.
Originally I didn't really have a reason to rush like this, however with my life potentially on the line I really didn't have the luxury to keep enjoying things at my own pace.
It might have been a stupid and shallow threat from a cockroach of a person, but I wasn't risking the mistake of ignoring what someone with more influence than me said.
Even if he didn't intend to kill me at all, a possible death threat was exactly that, and definitely not something to ignore when the person actually has that the ability to carry it out.
Second of all, I didn't actually know if I was stronger than him, but I could glean from his reaction I was at the very least on his level.
If he learned that I wasn't joking about my meteoric rise in power...
it could end up with him bringing in others to help him. Hell, he could end up even hiring someone to 'take care of me'. From his perspective I might come back down the line and 'deal with him' myself, so it wouldn't be that strange for him to try and end me in order to protect himself.
Once he learned about me, the mere possibility that I had a vendetta against him would drive him to attack, even if he didn't originally intend to.
Basically, regardless of whether his words were serious or not, he would still end up coming after me in the end.
'I guess he just died on a request, huh, end of story let's move on.'
I'm not about the end up the subject of a half-hearted conclusion like that, and the guild probably wouldn't care all that much even if they found out what happened, which is another reason why ranking up quickly would help me.
I would gain both personal power and support from an external source at once.
It was an unlucky mistake on my part to even approach them in the first place, but this should only take a week at most to wrap up, and I then I can go back to doing what I want.
I might even have been slightly overcautious, since the number of people who actually saw my strength go from low to high is extremely low, most people who saw my attacks would have assumed I was already that strong. As any sane person would.
"No point in asking the others for help, in fact their the ones who would be asking for my help in this situation, so I'll tie up the loose end and get back to enjoying new foods as soon as possible!"