The group left the Guild Master's office, escorted by Lilly, and they headed back down the stairs to the ground floor.
Many of the adventurers who had seen them being escorted to the Guild Master were still present in the guild hall on the ground floor.
When the group arrived in the hall, all the bystanding adventurers started whispering to each other with theories of what had happened. When they arrived back in the guild hall, Lilly excused herself and headed back up the stairs.
The group noticed that everyone was staring and talking about them, Val did not care but the others were a little embarrassed. Now that Val was free, he decided there were a few things he had to do. He needed to find a place to stay, he needed to find a smithy that could make him a sword, and he needed to gather information about the dungeon.
Val was not stupid, he would not blindly enter the dungeon by himself. That would be far too dangerous, and he was opposed to risking his life pointlessly.
Val turned to the group of young adventurers and said,
"Okay, I have a few other things I need to do, so I'm going to..."
Val did not get to finish what he was saying, as the group was approached by a group of older youths, around 16-17 years old. The group was led by a boy who resembled Jim.
The older boy had black hair and brown eyes, the same as Jim and his facial stature was similar but more mature then Jim's.
As the older group aproached, Lizzy, Bindy and the twins tensed up. They knew when Jim's older brother found out about what happened, he would want revenge and even with the guilds support, there was no guarantee they would come out unscathed.
When the group approached, Jim's older brother stared intently at the group and asked,
"Where is my younger brother? Why is he not with you, and who's this kid?"
The group did not know what to say, they were worried about what Jim's brother would do.
But Val was not worried, he had activated his [Mana Eye's] and had gotten a basic understanding of his talent. Based on the colour of his mana he had an Earth Magic Talent, and a Martial Talent, which was probably Spear Talent, based on the fact that he carried a spear on his back. Val did not think that either of his talents exceeded C-Rank.
Before Lizzy or the group could respond, Val replied,
"So you are Jim's brother, the two of you have a lot of similarities, you both lack manners. As I told your brother when he confronted me, its rude not to introduce yourself before asking about others."
Jim's brother squinted his eyes, his sight had shifted to Val. He was suprised that this young newbie would have the balls to speak up against him. After a breif moment of contimplation, he assumed that Val was just ignorant and stupid, but decided to answer anyway,
"I am Clint, Jim's older brother, D-Rank adventurer. Now answer my questions."
Val smurked, he found this guys ignorance far more amuzing then Jim's. Clint was used to being one of the top dogs around here, so Val found his attitude somewhat udnerstandable, but Val intended to change that. Val had realised that he would not be able to hide all of his secrets. Val had originally wanted to stay lowkey but he now understood that if he did not want people to take advantage of him or bully him, he would have to show some of his strength.
With Jamal's sigil he was somewhat protected from the rich and powerful kidnapping and enslaving him. Val knew that he was okay to show off a little in this area of the Kingdom because all the nobles were part of Duke Dolan's faction, and Val who was a friend of Jamal, could also be considered part of the same faction.
Val maintained his smurk and replied to Clint,
"I am Val, F-Rank adventurer, this is Leo my familiar.
I don't know where Jim is, the last time I saw him he was running away from me after he humiliated himself by attacking me and ended up losing his right hand."
When Clint heard that Jim had been injured, he instantly started seething with rage, drawing his spear from his back he was about to attack, however, he was stopped by his party members.
A beautiful girl, with long black hair, black eyes, and sharp facial features grabbed Clints arm. She had a large bust and a plump ass, Val noticed that she was very attractive.
She warned Clint,
"Do not attack him, we have not confirmed the situation yet, and you know that there is to be no fighting in the guild hall, you will get us all in trouble."
Clint did not want to listen and shook his party members hand off his arm and was about to strike Val when the doors of the guild were abruptly opened.
The atmosphere in the guild had become tense, everyone's attention was on the situation between Val and Clint, so when that tension was broken by the opening of the doors, everyones attention shifted to see who had the audacity to interupt this moment.
To everyone suprise it was Jim, who was holding his right hand in his left hand. He was being escorted by a guard, and was not looking good. He had stopped the bleeding but only after losing a significant amount of blood, and he was still in extreme pain. His brows were covered in dirt and sweat.
When Clint saw it was his younger brother, he ran to him to see if he was okay. When clint saw he was not doing good, his anger nearly exploded but he kept it contained for now. He needed to get his brother healed quickly.
There was two option to reattach his hand, either he had to find someone with a high rank healing skill or use a health potion. Clint had recently found a health potion in the dungeon, and decided to use it because he knew there was no one in town right now with the required skill.
Usually the priest would be able to reattach the hand, the members of the church often healed adventurers who had been injured, however, currently the priest was out of town on the request of a noble, so their was only nuns at the church and none of them could reattach missing body parts.
Clint took out the health potion and gave it to Jim, the black haired girl raised her voice in complaint,
"What are you doing, that is not yours, the party found that, you have no right to give it to your brother."
Clint frowned and stared at his party members, who were siding with the black haired girl. The health potion was worth a lot of money, and they did not want to waste it on someone outside their party.
Clint did not stop giving it to Jim, whilst he growled back at the black haired girl,
"Fuck off Tash, he's my brother, im not going to let him die."
Before Tash could reply, Jim had already started drinking the Health potion, Clint's entire team was very displeased.
Clint noticed their displeasure and exclaimed,
"If you want to blame someone, blame the kid for injuring my brother."
Everyone heard this, but no one agreed with Clint, they all knew what Jim was like, and how he acted because he was being protected by Clint. However, no one expected the young F-Rank boy to burst out into laughter,
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You can't be serious, you're blaming me? Don't be ridiculous, that bandit's life is certainly not worth a health potion. He's weak, ignorant and arrogant. He broke the rules and deserved what happened, he is lucky I was so magnanimus as to not kill him. You should be thanking me."
Most of the people inside the guild hall agreed with what Val said, but they still thought he was crazy for saying it out loud to Clint.
With Jim's hand healing Clints attention was back on Val, he had his spear in hand again was about to lunge at Val. He did not care about the rules, he wanted to kill this kid for what he had said and done.
However, before he could attack a booming voice was heard through the entire guild,
"What do you think you are doing inside the guild hall? No fight's are allowed inside here."
The voice had come from Lilly, who was walking down the stairs along side johnny.
Clint was annoyed at being interupted, but when he saw who it was, he swallowed his anger and pride and withdrew his spear. He was not foolish or angry enough to break the guild rules infront of the Vice Guild Master.
However, he would not let this go that easily. Thus he spoke to Lilly,
"I request this fucker be punished for attacking my brother, he has clearly broken the rules."
Lilly looked at Clint after he had made his request and simply said,
"No, Val will not be punished."
Clint was fuming with anger at Lilly's response,
"WHAT? You have to punish him!"
Clint was no longer requesting but rather demanding, and Lilly did not like this, not at all.
"I don't HAVE to do anything. Who the fuck do you think you are kid? A mere D-Rank adventurer thinks he can tell me what to do? Are you dumb or just that arrogant? Your brother was the idiot that tried to bully and attack someone far stronger then themselves. He broke the rules and will be punished accordingly, and don't think we are unaware of how he has been acting, the only reason nothing has been done is because there was no evidence, but now we have that evidence."
When Clint heard Lilly's retort, he immediately realised what he had done. He realised he had attempted to tell the Vice Guild Master what to do, and was basically disregarding the authority of the Guild.
After a breif pause Lilly continued,
"By order of the Guild Master of Loka Town, F-Rank adventurer Jim is officially banished from the guild and will never be allowed to join again. D-Rank adventurer Clint will be on the watch list, your behaviour will be observed, if we find you acting against the rules even slightly, you will be joining your brother in banishment. Guard Captain Johnny is there anything you want to add?"
Jim's was destraught and Clint was fuming, the brothers had never been treated like this in their entire lives. What was worse, was that they could do nothing about it. Their parents were not influencial enough to step against the guild, which was present in all kingdoms on the Metrolis Continent and even the other continents. The guild was arguably the most powerful organisation in the world.
Johnny concluded the punishment by saying,
"The guards will not add anything to Jim's punishment, but he will be treated as a civilian from now on. If he causes an issues we will deal with him, he will no longer be protected by the guild."
With everything that had been said the guild hall was in an extremely awkward silence, with no one wanting to be the first to make a sound or movement.
Suddenly, Val opens his mouth...