"In order to complete the task, our team needs a tank"
Inside the inn, at the table in the corner, there was three adventurers, the person who spoke is the leader. He looked no older than twenty years old, he had a short brown hair, dark brown eyes and a bronze tanned skin. He was wearing a sturdy leather vest; he wore simple pants reaching down to his ankle coupled with shoes made of leather and metal.
Around his waist, there was a leather belt which contained four small knifes. A long sword was hanging of it.
Across him set a young girl with fair skin, shoulder-length light brown hair and light brown eyes covered by large round glasses. She wore a wide dark blue robe with a belt at her waist. In her hand was a wooden staff.
"I don't' think it's necessary I am a rank-three mage, with rank-four worrier and rank-three archer taking down a Hobgoblin would not be a problem".
"It's just a rank four monster after all"
"Hazel. John does not mean that, the reward for this task is quite good, in addition we get to keep the nucleus, they just want the body. But if we suffered a serious injury, damaged our equipment or were forced to use a lot of consumables, it would not be a cost-effective task," said another young man.
Gallien was slim man in early twenties, he wore a tight dark leather sleeve vest and dark narrow leather less pants coupled with dark leather shoes, with this outfit he would be hard to spot in the shadows.
He carried a bow in his hand, a quiver full of arrows on his back and hung a small digger on his waist. He was a smart and careful man who preferred to talk things slowly suiting his specialty as an archer.
"We would have suffered to much just for some gold coins, but if we were able to recruit a tank adventurer, then even by paying him upfront or sharing the reward with him, we would be able to make more money after taking everything in consideration".
"The Hobgoblin is not very strong monster, the problems that it will ambush us by surprise attack with two or three goblins, it will distort our formation, yes at the end of it we will not die but we may suffer serious injuries".
"Pardon me it was not my intention to eavesdrop, I was just passing from here and I happened to hear you, if that's your problem, then I might have a better solution".
Hazel, Gallien and John looked at the young man in front of them, his clothes was worn out, there was some small tears in it and it was covered with dirt and grass.
His eyes were a bit cloudy and out of focus, but if you looked closely into his right eye, you would see a strange light, in contrast to his messy appearance his face was radiating confidence with a faint smile on his lips.
….
"Before saying things like 'what is this beggar doing here' or 'where did this crazy man came from', you should hear me out" without giving them a chance to refuse him, Dreue brought a chair from a nearby table and sit with them.
"Hey waiter, bring us some food and drinks, it's on me, but don't bring anything expensive".
"Where did this crazy man came from?"
"Huh, I told you!"
"You, mage your name was Hazel, take a look at my core"
"He is a rank two mage" Hazel focused her attention on Dreue.
" Wait a minute, his core is abnormal" Hazel knew there was something wrong with his core, but she was unable to tell what's it is.
"My core is defective, that means I will never be able to advance any further" Dreue said as he wolfed down the food on the table, the table got very messy, bit of food here and there, his hand would sometimes knock plates or cups, even having no manners at all would not be able to explain the mess he made, he was eating as if he never ate for days.
"You wanted to hire a tank just to counter the surprise attack of the Hobgoblin, that means putting the surprise attack aside, you are confident in your strength to take down the Hobgoblin, right?"
"yeah"
John broke the awkward silence; he held his arms crossed in front of him while looking at Dreue for a long time, waiting to see what interesting offer he will propose.
"What if the Hobgoblin did not perform a surprise attack?"
"It may or may not happen, but we can't take the risk" Gallien said as he grabbed a drink from the table, he was the first one to touch the food and drinks Dreue has ordered.
"that's right, but what do you think is your chance of winning without significant losses if we changed the situation from it may not perform an ambush to it will not be able to perform an ambush? And even more instead of being ambushed we may be the ones who ambush the Hobgoblin".
"I assure you, it's an offer that you can't refuse"
"You are talking like you have already become one of us! Captain lets me chance out this crazy man" Hazel said in annoyed manner.
"Boy, stop wasting our time, get straight to the point or get out from here".
"I am not 'boy', I have a name, my name is Dreue. I will stop beating around the bush, as the mage already said I have a rank two defective mana core in addition I have no combat experience furthermore as you have already seen I have a problem in my eyes, I am almost blind…but I can….". Dreue paused his speech for a few moments before continuing.
"I can sense the presence of mana" shock filed their faces and before they had time to digest the information Dreue carried on." that means I will be able to guide you inside the forest, you will be able to avoid all strong monsters and save your strength to fight the Hobgoblin, and the Hobgoblin will never be able to lunch an ambush because I would have already told you the moment it tries to sneak toward us".
"And if we are lucky maybe we would be the ones to ambush him".