Tch, what are you kids doing here? This is a serious mission," the man said, addressing us. While young adventurers are not uncommon, it is rare for them to participate in missions as dangerous as defending a city. The children knew how to act in such cases and simply ignored him, as did I. "Ah, I know.
"Ah, I know, they're cleaning up so the beast corpses don't pile up. You've got the wrong place. This place is for the fighters to rest," the man continued, and murmurs and jeers spread, as the adventurers were obviously not in charge of such tasks. Still We said nothing, and the man began to fill with confidence, he seemed to want to keep talking when another interrupted him.
"Shut up Garren! Don't underestimate those kids. My group was right next to them and they are more organized and stronger than yours. Not to mention they came in after you, which means they held out longer than you. I, in your case, would be ashamed to have said those words," said the leader of another group.
Hearing this, the unpleasant man fell silent. Honestly, it was getting annoying, so I am grateful to the guy who stood up for us. Then, he approached us.
"Hi, my name is Maxwell. You can call me Max. Don't mind that guy, he's just looking to blow off some steam because one of his buddies died and he received so many injuries that the cost of treatment will be deducted from his reward. By the way, I can see you belong to a great guild. It's not easy to have so many kids so young and strong without some powerful backing. My group and I are from the Azure guild, which is in the city of Agron "Max said, talking non-stop.
To which I replied
"It's a pleasure, I'm Lux. This is my group. We belong to the Arcturus guild, a newly created guild in the capital."
"So you're from the capital That explains why you're so powerful.
Well, I saw that they are very good, so, if the opportunity arises, we will work together. My group is very strong, you know, we have three three-star awakened and five two-star awakened.
Max didn't look very reliable he was thin and not muscular at all plus he had blond hair and green eyes, but he had a face that looked like someone who was a gigolo by nature, but since he had no bad intentions, I just nodded.
"Hum." It wasn't uncommon for others to say their rank when they introduced themselves because unless you have great mana control or an item or spell that hides rank, most people can tell your rank based on the mana you exude.
So it's normal to present your rank when working with others, as it will eventually come out. Although I can hide it I let others know I am a three star as it is common.
Max continued to talk to me as I gave short answers. He always had something to say, he even told me about his family. He was someone very sociable and even from his face I almost thought he was trying to seduce, but I think it's just my prejudice as he didn't seem like that type of person I guess? When they got enough rest, their group headed off to the fight.
Max is a nice guy; I hope he doesn't die in this battle. I think I heard something about him in my past life, but as much as I thought about it, I can't remember him, he must not be someone important so I ignore him and close my eyes, waiting for the kids to recover.
Some time passed and the children recovered. We found a place to reintroduce ourselves to the battle, noticing that the guys who had been badmouthing us were off to the side. I ignored them and focused on defending, but the kids, unsatisfied with the previous comments, were killing beasts and throwing the carcasses for them to see.
They were taking out more two-star beasts and collaborating to kill some three-stars. Although the guys' group had six three-star members and over thirteen two-star members, twice our size and stronger in theory, they couldn't keep up with us. In the end, they got tired and backed down, I could see a trace of humiliation on their face.
The battle lasted many hours, and although our combat area was not very dangerous, in other sections the fighting was more intense. A seven-star beast led the horde, but the knights managed to take care of it and the stronger beasts.
Once the leader was eliminated, the beasts began to flee. I didn't know the origin of this invasion, but In my previous life, I never heard of this city being invaded beyond its defenses or destroyed, so I knew this was an opportunity to fight without restraint and gain a lot of easy experience.
When the battle was over, my watch showed that we had accumulated a lot of points, entering the top 10 of contracted groups.
We were given a reward based on our achievements.
Each mercenary had been given a bracelet that counted how many beasts we had killed, a technology I didn't understand, but it could count the numbers and ranks of beasts killed, even measuring the collaborations of support mages and clerics.
"Now that I'm back, I should learn things I don't know," I muttered to myself. There were few things besides combat that I knew, such as alchemy and smithing.
Though I knew runes, only those related to the spells I learned, not of other elements and I'm sure there are useful spells out there that I never learned.The world is full of possibilities.'Now that I'm back, it wouldn't hurt to learn new things.'
Getting lost in my thoughts, the children were happy to receive their reward.None of them work for free, although the guild keeps a percentage.Every mission or job they do is paid, and each now has a certain amount of money in their personal accounts, so they can buy whatever they want.
We returned to our lodging now that it was all over.Along with the reward came an invitation to a celebration party for all the top 10 adventurer groups in cooperation.The kids were happy and chatting about what to do with the money earned as they walked animatedly to the lodge.As we were about to arrive, a giant shadow suddenly appeared in the direction of the sun.