There were several boards with posters on them and each poster contained a quest posted by either the guild itself or a civilian. Draven however ignored all the quest boards and went directly to the counter where a young maiden wearing a maid uniform was standing behind.
He chose to speak with the girl because the hardest and most high-paying quests were kept on the counter for daring adventurers. Currently, the girl was talking to a group of adventurers in leather armor.
"Can I go check the quest boards?" Sarah asked,
"No! She might try to ditch us" MArgoth screamed in his head but Draven ignored him. If Sarah wanted to escape, there would be several chances for her to do so in the future. Everything he learned about her led him to believe that if that girl wants something, she could get it one way or another.
It was a mystery to him why she focused on hacking UFH instead of joining them and becoming a hero. Her superior intellect would have catapulted her into the circle of elites themselves.
Anyways, her choice to become a hacker would help him find the whereabouts of those who murdered his family in front of him.
"Fine" Draven nodded as Sarah disappeared into the crowd of adventurers.
Draven waited until the adventurers finished talking to the girl behind the counter to leave and went to talk to the girl.
"Good day adventurer" she greeted Draven with a wide grin.
"You're a new face, aren't you? Well adventurer, you have to register with the guild first before taking up any quests"
The girl bent down to pick up a long parchment and slid it towards Draven to fill it,
The form asked him to fill out basic information such as his name, age, companions, moniker if he had any, and his combat abilities. Draven filled the form with phony information as he knew all the information they gave will directly go to UFH.
After glancing at them for a couple of seconds, the girl gave him a hand-sized copper card. The number '217'was engraved into the card
"Welcome to the adventurer guild, John. In case you haven't noticed, the quests are over there-"
The girl pointed at the quests boards but was interrupted by Draven in a midway,
"I want the elite quests"
The girl's jaw slightly dropped a few inches,
"John they are fo-"
Once again, Draven interrupted the girl and this time, her left brow twitched as though she was being offended by his arrogant attitude.
"I'd like to try them please"
The girl rummaged through the stack of parchments on the side of the table. Several moments later, she handed him over five golden parchments.
While Draven was going through the parchments containing the hardest quests, Sarah was in the women's restroom. Surprisingly for a building with so many female adventurers, the restroom was empty. She stood in front of a mirror,
"What are you doing Regina? You should tell him the truth before it is too late" Sarah clenched her fist. The face looking back at her, she did not like that face.
"You have to tell him, he suffered enough" She punched the wall aside from the mirror,
"I'm gonna do it. I've come this far"
BOOM!
Just as she was talking to her reflection, an explosion shook the entire building.
"What the?!"
BOOM!
The building yet again trembled by the louder and more powerful explosion than the previous one. Sarah's training kicked in as she immediately took out a mirror and a dead bee from inside her bra. When she tapped the mirror two times, the charcoaled skin of the bee turned yellowish. The bee's pair of eyes glimmered as it buzzed out of the restroom through the keyhole.
Sarah quickly opened up one of the bathrooms and hid inside with the mirror in her hand. Outside the restroom, the hall was completely shrouded in mist. Every man and woman who were lively chatting a few moments ago lay on the ground unconscious.
"Ladies and gentlemen" a raspy voice echoed through the hall followed by a peal of clownish laughter.
Then, shadows of figures emerged through the mist carrying various weans such as bats, clubs, swords, and mazes. There were at least twenty men with above-average build and rough looks. They all covered themselves in a white paint from head to toe except for the two men leading the group.
"What did I tell you morons? You need an audience to get amazed by your perfect intro. Do you see an audience hahaha?" the man let out a burst of maniac laughter. He had chalk-white skin, ruby-red lips permanently fixed in a demonic grin, and bright red hair. He was clothed in a purple long coat with white stripes, a red vest, red trousers, and a pair of clown shoes with a ball attached to the pointy end.
He was the infamous super-villain known as 'The Clown'
"You literally bombed them with knockout gas you made," another calm voice said and unlike the Clown, he sounded sane. However, he was horribly disfigured and there was not a single speck of skin on his body that wasn't burnt by fire. And this villain went by the name 'Scarface'
The only piece of cloth on his body was the fedora hat on top of his head. Other than that, he was as naked as a newborn baby.
"Blacky gonna go craaaaaazzzzzyyyyy when he realizes his shipment has been re-routed, heheheheh" The Clown laughed out loud,
"We should have hijacked the shipment when it was on the way here. I for one don't want to go to jail for the sixth time" Scarface growled,
"You're such a party pooper. Imagine the look on Blacky's face when we steal his shipment right under his nose, that would drive him insane, lalalala"
The Clown tiptoed towards the counter where Draven was talking to the girl a few moments ago. He danced like a ballerina on his way there.
"Don't stand here like bumbling fools. Go search the building. If anyone isn't unconscious, kill them before they alert the pigs"
The men standing behind Scarface hustled in all the directions like headless chickens. Many of them stepped over the adventurers on their way to their targeted areas.
"Look at this fine turkey" one of the brutes squatted beside a girl and grabbed her butt firmly,
"You idiot!" Scarface yelled at the brute. Blood seeped through the burnt skin around his throat as he shouted at the brute.
"Stop messaging that ass and do what we are paying you fools to do" the brute immediately stood up, shuddering in fear. He quickly ran away from the girl to avoid suffering the wrath of Scarface.
"JACKPOT!" the Clown's voice exploded with joy,
"I found it!"
Scarface limped towards the room where the Clown was screaming from. Since Scarface believed none of the adventures were conscious, he was carefree. He strolled towards the room while stepping on a bunch of adventurers as though they were not even there.
On his way to the room behind the counter, he walked past the one man who was still conscious; Draven. Yet, Draven lay on the ground pretending to be unconscious.
"He really went all in"
Draven heard Scarface talk in a really shocked tone.
"We can't let him have it…no no no no. He will kick out butts while looking great at it" the Clown chuckled,
"Look at the material. It's strong yet so light. He must have spent a fortune on it"
By listening to their conversation, whatever the package was, it might be something worth taking a peek at or like Margoth's been suggesting, seizing it for themselves.
"I'm gonna paint this baby red and take it for a ride, hehehehe" The Clown laughed out so loud that Draven almost didn't hear a brute knocking on the restroom door,
Dum!
Dum!
Dum!
"Somebody there?" the brute asked who was knocking on the door asked,
"The sign says do not disturb" Another brute joined. The brute was pointing at the stick drawing of a 'girl' on the door,
"No you idiot, it's a sign for the ladies restroom"
Seeing the two brutes argue, the others too come to join them. Good thing the brutes were all brawn no brains. Otherwise, they would have broken the door and entered it instead of arguing over the sign.
"Boss, we found fifty thousand ethereals here!" Another brute from the adjacent room to the one where the Clown and Scarface were.
"Goody, whoever found that gets one extra chicken leg in his dinner"
"Boss I love you!" the brute cried in joy
Meanwhile, the brutes arguing in front of the restroom finally decided to break open the door but before they decided which weapon to use, Scarface and the Clown came out of the room dragging a wooden crate on a trolly and a brute followed them behind with a sack filled with etherials. The two supervillains noticed the commotion in front of the ladies restroom and Scarface rolled his eyes,
"Kick that door open!" Scarface barked at them,
"Argg boss?" a brute called out for Scarface while holding his waist,
Scarface and the Clown turned their gaze with annoyed looks on their faces but when they saw the brute, the annoyed looks turned grim. The white paint around his waist was turning red. The blood was trickling down from his waist to the ground, forming a tiny puddle of blood where he was standing,
The brute then collapsed to the ground face-first revealing a dagger sticking out of his back,
"BOYS!" the clown drew all of their attention with a shout,
"It's either he stabs himself in the kidney or we have a pretender among us, hehehehehe" The Clown menacingly laughed. He was looking around the hall until his gaze was fixed on the moving body beside the injured brute.
"What do we have here?" The Clown grinned looking at the youngster who was standing up,
Draven pulled out the broken sword from the brute's back before cracking his neck. The blood splattered on the ground and onto a couple of adventures when he swung the broken sword.
"How come you are not like the others?" Scarface asked menacingly, staring at Draven.
"What are you? A special human or Enhanced?" The Clown took out a crimson red dagger from the sheath and slowly licked the blade,
"Don't be offended that I didn't say Super and Supreme darling. I know a Super or Supreme when I see one and you my dude, is not one"
The Clown's giggling was getting into Draven's nerves,
"Besides, I know all of them, hehehehe"
Meanwhile, the brutes started to surround Draven. They were waving the weapons in their hands at Draven but he wasn't afraid at all. Scarface noticed Draven's expressionless face and tried to warn the Clown,
"You have to take care of this beautiful, I have a bird to catch," the clown said to Scarface and the next moment, he raised his hands in the sky.
The Clown snapped his fingers,
Boom!
This time a hole in the ceiling appeared and a rope through that hole. The Clown grabbed onto the clown and gave it a little yank,
"Kill him and toss him in the river. Beautiful," He flicked Scarface on the head,
"Bring me that crate"
The Clown had been lifted up by something and when he was just a few inches away from the hole, he slapped himself on the forehead,
"Silly me, I forgot to take the sack. New orders!" he shouted,
"Bring me that crate and the sack. After killing him"
Draven watched the clown fly away from the guild with the help of probably one of his minions. Draven knew that a mastermind like the Clown would have several back-ups and escape plans if things went south. He didn't bother to catch the clown as his priority was getting whatever inside the crate and disappearing before the UFH or the Black Knight appears.
"Do me a favor and die like a good dog," Scarface growled. The brutes completely surrounded Draven. It was one versus twenty and Scarface liked the odds.
"I wasn't going to kill but now I guess the world will be a better place without you" Draven's face showed no expression,
"Stop with your empty threats. Heroes don't kill. Unfortunately, we do"
"Who said I am a Hero?" Draven's lips slightly curled upwards to reveal a devilish grin.