After arriving at the palace, I had Bravo team bounce a few ideas about our next course of action off each other. We have concluded that we should hear what the king has to say first before truly deciding.
"Hey, Finn! My father is ready to meet with you now," Kat shouted garnering my attention as she ran up towards me.
"We best not keep the king waiting then," I replied and followed Kat with the rest of Bravo team.
We arrived at the throne room doors which were opened gracefully by the king's royal guard, looking around the throne room now there seemed to be no trace of the hundreds of soldiers that we killed when rescuing the 2nd princess.
"They cleaned this place up," Fabian remarked looking around.
As we near the throne, I noticed some of the younger nobles looking at us with disdain.
"Ah, Sir Finn, welcome. For your contributions to the Earlean kingdom, I gift you one hundred gold coins. I also would like to invite you to become royal guards, you are welcome to refuse this offer," King Alexei offers while standing up.
"I thank you for your gift, however, I must decline your offer to join the royal guards," I explained, "my team and I have decided that our next course of action is to become adventurers and learn more about this world."
"Very well, Sir Finn, you are welcome in the Kingdom and you may leave when you are ready," Alexei replied cheerfully.
"We will be on our way then, thank you for your time," I said before turning around and making my way back to the MATV and LMTV with Bravo team in tow.
"That went well," Mark chuckled.
"Ok, we are heading into the city on foot," I started to explain, "So we are going to need something to cover our gear, we do not want unnecessary attention. Preferably something that will not mean we have to take off our equipment."
"How about these?" Kat asked walking over with a pile of black cloaks.
"Those would work," I replied smiling, "How did you know we would want these?"
"My Father sends his regards," she said while handing me the cloaks before walking away.
"Wow didn't think the king could predictions," Mark remarked, I passed a cloak to everyone and draped one over myself.
"System, unsummon the LMTV and MATV," I said as I pulled the hood over my helmet after taking off my NODs and stowing them.
[Understood, removing LMTV and MATV] The robotic voice of the system replied as the two vehicles sunk into the ground surrounded by glowing magic circles.
"Ok, Bravo team let's get moving!" I shouted and started moving out of the palace grounds.
The streets are crowded so I had Bravo team spread out across the street so we didn't draw attention.
"*Stchk* We're here, we'll go in as a group," I whispered into my radio, "Remember, try not to draw too much attention."
I cut through the street dodging people before arriving at the entrance with Bravo team falling in behind me. Opening the door and stepping inside, I dodged a chair being thrown across the room.
"This place is lively," Rob chuckled under his breath as we walked further inside to the desks on the opposite side of the building.
"Hello, we would like to register as adventurers," I asked the woman at the desk.
"Of course, follow me," She replied and walked into a smaller room. Following her inside, the room has a table and a few chairs, as well as a crystal orb that I would assume, has something to do with this world's magic.
"Please place your hand on the orb," she requested, pointing towards the sphere on the table.
"Ok," I replied, placing my hand on the crystal and it started to glow blue, I felt a light tingling sensation on my hand which suddenly disappeared with the light.
"Thank you, you can step away now," the clerk said while lifting the orb and picking up a slate. "This is your adventurer's ID. Don't lose it; it displays your rank. You will need to do a quest within a week for it to verify itself. You are currently the lowest rank and will be limited in the quests you can take. You can increase your rank by completing more difficult quests. You can form adventuring groups to take higher-rank quests. If you are all the same rank, you can only take quests one rank above your own. If a member of your party is higher ranked, then you will be able to take quests of the same rank as that member. If there are any urgent quests that require the immediate attention of all adventurers nearby, then the ID will glow red. If you have any other questions, please ask one of the clerks at the front desk."
"Thank you," I replied, as I stepped back and let the rest of my team register themselves.
"Well, that wasn't too bad," James said stepping away from the table.
"The quest board is outside to the left. You can only take quests ranked E unless you form a group," the clerk smiles, walking out of the room.
"Well, let's see what quests there are then," I said, stepping out of the room and walking over to the quest board.
"That's a lot of quests," Fabian remarked, looking at the board spanning the length of the room.
"Looks like the E-rank quests are down at this end and there's a hell of a lot more of them," Mark chuckles, walking towards the far end of the board.
"These all seem to be delivery and small errand quests," I sighed, "we're forming a group we should be able to take D-rank quests. Let's see, a kill quest."
"That sounds right up our alley," Mark said smirking as I pulled it off the board and walked over to the front desk.
"We would like to start this quest," I said to the clerk in front of me.
"Ok, you will be forming a group, yes?" He asked gesturing to my team.
"Yes," I replied flatly.
"I see you are all new, so this is a kill quest the quest sheet has all the information known about your target. If you are able to you can capture the target for a higher reward, bring him back here if you do so and we can hand him off to the city guards. Good luck," he explained before handing the quest sheet back to me.
"Thank you," I said before leaving the guild hall.
"So, where are we headed now?" James asked me as we walked.
"Seems we are headed west, to a forest called Shadowthorn. That's where this guy was last seen," I explained as we walked towards the west gate, "According to this he is an outlaw and has done a lot of grim stuff."
"He's got an ugly mug," Mark remarked as I passed the paper around.
Exiting the capitol, we headed west trekking on foot for about a kilometre before summoning an MATV.
"System, summon an MATV and a map," I said and moments later the magic circle materialises the MATV with the map laid out on the bonnet. Walking over to the map I found our location and figured out the best route to the mission area.
"Okay, mount up everyone, Mark you're on the MK19!" I shouted, climbing into the passenger seat while the rest of my team moved around to their designated positions.
"Rob, follow the path we are on. In about 3km the road is gonna get bumpy." I instructed, checking the compass against the map. The MATV lurched forward as we began the long drive to the target.
"Ok, Rob turn off here we are gonna track on foot now, the guy was last seen raiding solo caravans along this route," I informed Rob and the rest of my team. The MATV stops and we disembarked and unsummon the vehicle before trekking for about 500 meters.
"We are going to set up a stakeout along this trade route, the target frequents this path attacking lone caravans that travel along it," I explained before we moved to better positions on either side of the path.
"*Stchk* I thought you said this was a high-frequency trade route?" Mark groaned, "we now passing the 5-hour mark."
"*Stchk* Sure doesn't feel like it but it is high frequency by this world's standards. However, we should bear fruit soon," I said, as I heard the distant sounds of a carriage approaching.
"*Stchk* Standby we finally have traffic!" I whispered, looking up the road I could see the carriage approaching us. As the carriage passed us, a figure appeared further ahead and stopped the carriage before drawing their sword while muttering unintelligible words.
"*Stchk* Contact! Mark push around with Rob, and get ready to grab him," I ordered. I pulled up my binoculars and looked at the figure in question, it was our target.
"*Stchk* All teams, target has been confirmed, hold till my order," I reported as I moved out from under cover and approached the target.
"Hey!" I shouted, "What are you doing!"
The target jumped back at my voice and looked startled. 'Time to grab this guy'.
"*Stchk* Execute," I said, while staring at the target who started to regain his bearings but not before a bag was shoved onto his head by Mark and his arms were restrained by Rob. The sound of his sword hitting the ground in his struggle before being drowned out as Rob finished zip-tying his wrists together and shoved him to the ground.
"He's secure," Rob reported with his knee pushing on the target's back.
"Ok, lights out for him then," I said, giving Mark the cue the knock the target out using the butt of his rifle.
"Thank you for doing that," the carriage driver said.
"No worries, we're here on a quest to get this guy," I said before I turned around and the rest of my team emerged from the forest.
"Mark, James, move him to the side of the path and let the carriage pass," I ordered, moving to the side myself. The carriage passed us and the driver thanked us again before speeding up.
"System, summon one RG-33L MRAP," I said.
[Affirmative, summoning RG-33L MRAP 1x]
The red magic circle appeared and a green RG-33L MRAP rose out of the ground.
"Rob, you're driving, Fabian you're on the fifty," I ordered, before opening the back and helping Mark and Rob get the unconscious target secured in the back.
After securing the target I Shut the back door and hopped in the passenger seat.
"Ok back to the Capital," I said while pulling out the map.