[21 April 2023, 06:00 AM]
[House]
We went back home right after I arrived at Zaiden's home. More specifically, I dragged Chloe home because I needed sleep like I told Zaiden a few hours ago.
I managed to get 5 hours of sleep. Today, I planned to go to the Awakener Association to officialize our Mercenary Group. I only hoped that the Awakener Association didn't make it difficult for us.
The only thing we needed to do was to get a Mercenary Tag from the receptionist. At the same time, I planned to watch over Zaiden. Knowing his personality, I knew that he would register in the Awakener Association's office as soon as it opened at 8 AM.
If he wanted to get stronger faster than the original one from the novel, he needed to get a headstart. The best option for that was to join a guild, and I coincidentally had the contact of the Sacred Relic guild recruiter.
"Hello, sorry to disturb you this morning, Miss Rosa."
[Hahahaha, please don't be sorry, Rai. Also, you can call me Rosa without Miss.]
"How can I? We are allies now, so I must give my respect to you, the one who made this alliance possible."
[Please be casual with me, Rai. I am uncomfortable with you using polite language. Because we are allies, we should talk comfortably.]
"Is that so? Then I will do just that."
Her request was understandable. We are allies, and to make both of us comfortable, using a casual tone would be preferred. Though we didn't know each other that long, we should be able to deepen our relationship if we were talking comfortably.
Because I understood her feelings, I switched my way to talk back to how I used to be. It was also convenient for me as I was not used to talking in a polite tone.
[Yes. So, why are you suddenly calling me this morning?]
"About that, I have a small favor to ask. Can you accompany us to the Awakener Association's office to get our Mercenary Tag? I believe that having someone from the Sacred Relic with us will make the process… easier."
[Ah, about the Hero, right? I almost forgot about that. I don't mind. When and where should we meet later?]
"We can meet at the Awakener Association office at 8 AM. The faster, the better, no?"
[You're correct. Then, see you later. I will be waiting for you.]
"See you later. Thank you."
[You're welcome.]
I ended the call and put my phone into my pocket.
I still had around two hours before going to the Awakener Association, so I took it easy and went to the living room.
There, Chloe was sitting on the couch while holding her phone. She smiled as her fingers danced on the screen of her phone. Was she texting with Lisa or the other girls? I saw them exchanging phone numbers yesterday.
It didn't seem that she noticed me, so I greeted her first.
"Good morning, Chloe. What is today's breakfast?" I sat next to her on the couch and turned the TV on to watch the news.
Chloe raised her head to look at me with a surprised expression. "I…" Her words seemed to be stuck in her throat as she looked around in a panic.
It was just my imagination, but…
"Could it be… You have no idea what to cook this morning?"
"Ugh… Yes… I-I have been texting with the girls, you know? It's my first time having a friend, so…" She looked rather guilty and hid the lower half of his face behind her phone while peeking at me with an upturned gaze.
If she said it like that, even I couldn't refute it. I was too used to Chloe preparing breakfast for me that I took it as a given. However, I should've expected that she would not be able to cook once in a while. I shouldn't bother her too much, especially when she was happy after getting a new friend.
'However, it's also a problem. How should I explain this to Chloe in the future?'
As I couldn't explain it to her right now, I shrugged my shoulders and then pulled out my phone.
"Shall we order a takeout?"
Chloe nodded her head softly before she went back to her phone, her fingers danced on the screen again, and a small smile appeared on her face.
'Well, whatever. I will leave explaining about the necessary things to the future me.'
I opened the application to order some food and then asked her again.
"What do you want for breakfast?"
"Umm, maybe some salad? Or some soup. Maybe something a bit heavier is okay too." She answered me while her eyes glued to her phone's screen.
"Alright, how about Mapo Tofu from a Chinese restaurant?"
"Yes! Please make it spicy!" Finally, she raised her head and jumped excitedly. So she liked spicy food? That was why the curry that she made was spicy.
I ordered two spicy Mapo Tofu from the nearby Chinese restaurant and waited. While waiting, I tried to find something interesting on the TV, but the programs aired in the morning were cartoons or some news about an Idol that recently broke up with his girlfriend, which I had no interest in.
'Hmm, nothing is interesting.'
I turned the TV off and opened a certain website on my phone. If there was a Merchant Store, a dark website that only a few Awakeners knew about, then a website that all Awakeners knew also existed. It was called 'Awakener's Lounge', a specific website for Awakeners to put in some requests for Mercenaries or to find a party to raid a dungeon together.
In the novel, Zaiden entered a party with an instructor to raid a dungeon right after he registered as an Awakener. The dungeon was an F-Rank dungeon, the one under Hollywood Sign, atop Mount Lee.
It was a way to introduce a dungeon in the novel, but as usual, there was some problem to spice things up so the reader would be excited.
'The instructor at the first dungeon is a mercenary. So there should be someone who posted the request about it somewhere on the website.'
I managed to find the recruitment for an instructor to raid the Hollywood dungeon as soon as I scrolled down the thread about mercenary requests. Without wasting any time, I posted a reply that we, Annihilator, would accept the request.
The thread starter directly messaged me as soon as I posted the reply. We talked about where and when we should meet before finally agreeing to meet in the dungeon at 08:30 AM. I put my phone back in my pocket and looked at Chloe, who had just put her phone on the table.
"Hey, Chloe."
"Yes?" She answered and turned to me.
"We got a request."
"Huh?"
She tilted her head to the right, confused.
"Our Mercenary Group. We got the first request."
"Really? When?" She asked excitedly.
"At 08:30 AM. The request is from a new Awakener. He needs an instructor to instruct him and his party to reach the Hollywood dungeon's deepest part."
"Hollywood dungeon? Isn't that F-Rank dungeon? Why does he need an instructor?"
"Of course he needs it. Everyone needs an instructor to raid the dungeon safely. A few things are not covered in the books, like how the monsters react and such. They need an instructor to tell them about it directly on the field."
At least there was no sane person who entered the dungeon for the first time without a party. The one who raided a dungeon alone without a party for their first raid was a madman, for example, me. Or, this girl here.
"But I raided my first dungeon alone? There is no other person except me in the dungeon. While you also raided your first dungeon without a party, right?"
"I was, but there are a few people inside the dungeon that I entered. However, this Hollywood dungeon is reserved to train new Awakeners. So there is not a single human soul in the dungeon."
"I see… So we need to instruct them on how to kill the monster and such? We don't need to kill the monsters for them, right?"
"Yes. But we need to interfere if the situation looks dangerous."
"I understand." She nodded her head. "This is our debut, huh."
"Yup. Then, get ready to go to the Awakener Association to get our tag."
"Alr–" Chloe was about to answer me, but her sentence was cut off by the sound of the doorbell, followed by a shout of a man.
Ding Dong–!
"Delivery!"
After the shout, there was a sound that came from Chloe.
Growl~
I looked at her, and her face turned red in embarrassment. The sound that followed shortly after the shout was her stomach sound.
She tried to look away from me, but ultimately, she scratched her cheek and said, "Uhh… Shall we eat first?"
"Yeah." I answered with a nod.
***
[21 April 2023, 07:40 AM]
[Awakener Association Office]
After eating the Mapo Tofu that we ordered in delight, we went to the Awakener Association's office fully geared up. Chloe was not using her necklace as we were going there to get our Mercenary tag. While I, as usual, gearing up with my hoodie and mask, the usual Rai's gear.
I should enhance my gear so that I could change into it by just pouring a Mana, but… I didn't really think it was too necessary now. Maybe I would enhance my equipment when I got better gears. Using the Enhancement Dust on normal clothes like the one I wore right now seemed wasteful.
We arrived right on time. There were queues in front of the office. Two employees were trying to keep them from entering the office as the rest of them were opening the door and preparing to open the office.
Chloe and I stood a little distance away from the crowd in order not to get caught in it. We were waiting for Rosa to get us inside, away from anyone's sight. However, we were still drawing some attention due to Chloe's fame as the Hero.
Almost every Awakener who tried to go to the office glanced in our direction while whispering something to their friends. Some of them even waved their hands toward us, or more specifically Chloe, but she ignored them as she stared at one person among the crowd.
Of course, the person she stared at was the girl accompanying our protagonist, Zaiden. He stood like a sore thumb with his Academy uniform and sword strapped to his waist, talking with a girl wearing the Academy uniform. That girl was Lily, and Chloe was on the verge of approaching her to greet her.
"Don't go there, Chloe. You are not wearing your disguise right now."
"I know. I am just watching her. In the group chat that I was invited in, she said that she would be absent from the Academy today. So she's accompanying Zaiden to register, huh?"
"Well, she's his childhood friend. It's natural for her to accompany him on his big day."
"I see… So Lily sees Zaiden as her important one?" Chloe asked, unsure of what she said herself. She was holding her chin, analyzing Lily with an amused smile.
"You're not wrong, but you're not right either," I answered. Even I wasn't sure how Lily saw Zaiden. Scratch that; I was not sure of anyone's feelings right now.
Even Ao, who was the most predictable, made an unpredictable move by announcing her identity as Thomas Evan's daughter. She was supposed to keep it a secret from anyone and climb up the rank in Sacred Relic Guild by her own strength.
"Hmm… Human's feelings are complicated." Muttered Chloe.
I nodded my head in agreement. "You're correct."
We continued waiting for Rosa as we watched new Awakeners arrive one after the other. The crowd quickly became large, and most of them were talking about us. Even Zaiden and Lily stole a glance in our direction a few times.
Zaiden was confused, as he must've never thought that he would see the Hero, Chloe, on his first day of being an Awakener. My presence here was confusing for him too. Although the interview that I recorded with Christoper that night was aired on the TV, I wasn't sure if Zaiden watched that.
Seeing his expression after he saw me, I guess he didn't watch the interview.
'Well, step one is done. Next, I need to finish the instructor's job flawlessly.'
There were a few reasons why I took this instructor's job request. First of all, Zaiden would certainly join the party to get used to dungeons. And the most important reason was the requester.
'He has a lot of influence in the future, so this job will be the fastest way to gain a connection with him.'
After a few minutes of waiting, Rosa finally appeared. She was running from the distance while shouting.
"I am sorry! The traffic was jammed, so I was a bit late!"