POV Talon

Of course, that crazy bastard walks into the exact room I’m in, out of tens of thousands in this godforsaken city full of greedy assholes.

I’d hoped to never see him again, especially after we left him behind. I still think it was the most reasonable course of action, and he probably would have done the same. I swear by the name of the brother I had to kill when he backstabbed me, literally, that I wouldn’t have been angry if he had done the same to me and left me behind to deal with the Harvester.

I still remember the faces of the others when we entered the second floor, and a few seconds later, got the notification about the Harvester’s death. I never saw people rush so quickly to get away from the place we appeared in.

So here I am, alive and once again relying on my charm and prowess to get me through the floor. With my primordial energy giving me a chance at joining the Primordial Knights for a nice warm spot and a good salary. One-year contract nearly signed, and enough time to prove myself and negotiate for some fanciful rewards once it expires. With hopes of earning enough shards to buy a few nice passives or get some items from the guild storage to reinforce my primordial energy. After all, if they don't have an item like that, who would?

Just as I’d planned ever since the first floor, with the help of my lovely Handler.

But now, that mana boy glances across the room, and our eyes meet. I don’t even bother hiding and instead force a smile onto my face and wave.

His eyes slide off me in that manner I hate so much. Goddamn concentration skill users.

After looking at me like that, he follows the bald man he entered with, and they enter another room.

Not gonna lie, even though I’ve met people stronger than him, I feel a wave of relief wash over me.

Next to me, a few newbies also wait for their tests and take care of some other boring stuff before we find out if we can join or not. I’m confident about my spot, but it’s still too early to start building relationships with them when I don’t even know if they’ll be chosen.

One of them sees the whole scene go down and asks, “You know that guy, Talon?”

I already ranked the one who’s asking a bit higher than the other potential members, so it probably won’t hurt to be nice.

I turn to him. “Yup, we were in a group, fighting a guardian to enter the second floor.”

He lets out a low whistle. “Interesting. He didn’t even wait for the tests like we did. Was he strong?”

That makes me snort. “Strong? The bastard murdered the guardian monster by himself.”

“Bullshit.”

I look around and notice the other candidates listening as well, but I don’t mind, though I lower my voice a bit for the next bit, “I don’t know about you guys, but if we ever meet eye to eye, I will turn into the most obedient fucker there ever was. Yes, sir. Always sir. Please don’t kill me, sir. May I kiss your ass, sir?”

“If he really did solo the guardian monster, it had to be one of the weaker ones,” the useful looking guy theorizes.

“Weaker? That bony asshole wiped out ninety percent of our party.”

“The hell? Did you guys fuck up, or was it really that strong?”

“Probably both? It was a new one, and we didn’t have any prior information, we couldn’t even prepare properly. I bet at least some of the assholes in our party were doing their best to get most of us killed so they could take the items.”

"Oh, that makes sense. But your raid party could’ve waited, couldn’t they? Someone got greedy."

“Guilty as charged, but don’t think I’m joking either. The guy gives me chills, and it’s not just his concentration skill. What kind of bastard agrees to play the bait for a guardian monster?”

“So he volunteered? You’re serious?” the newbie asks.

I lean back and grin. “Serious as a heart attack. The guy’s got a screw loose, I swear. But in a good way. The sort of guy you want to point at the bastards you hate, while keeping him from coming after you.”

A woman with a scar running across her eyebrow chimes in. “So, he’s a frontline tank?”

“A tank?” I scoff. “Honey, we all thought he was gonna die. Some maybe hoped he was gonna die, you know, bigger share. And then… well, then he didn’t. He just… didn’t. That skeletal monstrosity totally ignored us like that guy was the only one worth its attention. I almost died to that fucking arrow it pulled out of its ass at the end. Meanwhile, the crazy bastard was just there, unfazed, dodging and weaving like it was god-damn dance night. Then he just waited like he was curious to see what kind of bullshit the guardian would use to attack him next. Who the fuck does that?”

A nervous cough from one of the weaker-looking guys. “So, when you say ‘murdered the guardian monster alone’… you mean, like, actually alone? Nobody helped him?”

“Are you fucking deaf?” I turn to the dumbass who has asked that. “I could sense it. Whatever bullshit that guy was preparing to face the guardian, I didn’t want to be near it. You just instinctively know you don’t want to be in the area.”

"Well, good luck with that." That asshole smiles and nods towards the door the mana boy is returning from as he starts walking in my way.

All that could be a coincidence, but what isn’t is his eyes glued on me as he walks toward me.

He stops as he reaches me and says, "You owe me 30% of the value of the items you grabbed before you ran away."

Motherfuc...

"Yes, sir! I was looking for you because of that!"

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POV Nathaniel

Surprisingly, the archer guy just keeps nodding and smiling. He quickly names the items he was able to take before he ran. Unsurprisingly, the two low arcane items and two upper epics, from how he describes them, are fairly valuable.

He tries to be sneaky and offer me 30% of the value of the shards he would get if he sold them to the system shop, where he would only get between 10-20% of their value.

I gently correct him. I’m not too unreasonable, so I assume he would be able to get 50% of the value, not unlike the deal I got from the lynthari merchant, and so I ask for 30% of that.

In the end, he transfers me 39 thousand shards.

I observe him as we speak, and even though he seems sour about it, I don’t really think it’s all that much to him. More likely, he is just annoyed that he has to pay while the guys I haven’t met before don’t have to.

"What primordial energies do you have?" I ask after the transfer is complete.

"I don’t know, and it’s pretty rude to ask, man, hehe," he smiles, that smile some men can do that shows their teeth. With his stubby beard and wavy, long hair it makes him look rugged and not much different from a man known as Strider from one of my favorite movies.

It must be nice to be handsome.

"You know what’s rude?"

"Oh man, I know what you want to..."

I don’t let him finish. "Agreeing to let someone serve as bait while..."

"Come on, you almost literally begged us to use you as bait."

"...while relying on their teammates, who promised to use the time to kill the..."

"We did our best."

"...kill the monster, and then running after barely managing to do any damage, all while the other guy fights for his life."

"I did damage it a little bit."

"That’s what I consider rude," I finish.

"Stellar Wind," he sighs. "It’s not like I planned to keep it hidden. Such a rare form of primordial energy will get me plenty of attention from the other guilds and force the Primordial Knights to offer me something nice."

"I see. How did you get it?"

"You have to agree, THAT is a very shameless question."

Looking at his eyes, I give it a bit of thought before I agree with him. "I guess. Where are the others from our raid party?"

"No idea. They ran away the moment we got the kill notification."

"Shame."

"Right? Are you with Primordial Knights now?"

"It’s difficult to say, but if that bald guy I came with asks, then I said 'yes.'"

One of the guys to the side decides to join the conversation. "Don’t you know his name?"

"Weslin," I decide to answer.

"Damn. What’s a monster like him doing on this floor?"

Before I can say anything, the archer speaks up. He looks at me first. “By the way, I’m Talon.” Then he turns to the guy who spoke. “And who the hell is Weslin?”

"Sometimes they call him The Null King, he’s one of the top dogs in Primordial Knights and likely the best user of Primordial Void currently in the Beyond."

Talon blinks and then glances back at me. "You friends with him?"

"Not really."

"You should become one. If you don’t want to, just give me an introduction instead. I don’t mind handling the communication part, so you can stay in the background and continue training and fighting head-on with monsters many levels higher than you."

I suspected it from the start, but this guy really is a social butterfly. A pure extrovert and an opportunist. The worst part is, even though he talks like this and doesn’t seem to be hiding much, his face and easygoing nature make it seem like it might just be some harmless quirk. People around him actually find it amusing and listen to him.

At that time, Weslin finally exits the door, likely having received the package he’s meant to be delivering to the third city. When he spots me, he heads my way.

"There you are, making friends?"

"Sir Null King! Greetings, I’m Talon and..." The archer starts right away but stops in the middle when he sees Weslin’s expression.

Weslin stares at Talon, his expression a mix of mild annoyance and amusement. “The fuck are you on about? Stop licking boots. You’ll wear your tongue out before you even get a contract signed.”

That shuts Talon up for a second. The gathered people exchange glances, most of them clearly uncertain how to react. A few smirk at Talon’s expense, but nobody dares speak up, at least not right away.

I stay quiet and watch the scene with part of my focus. At the same time, I adjust my Restrictive Training Emblem to draw a bit more out of it and start feeling the damage it’s doing to my body. In response, I quickly tweak my construct to let bits of thermal energy flow through me, just enough to heal the worst of it without fixing too much. My body needs to take damage for the emblem to work the way it should.

Lastly, I keep manifesting a mana orb inside my closed fist, dissolving it right away, then creating it again. Each time, I make small changes and continue my testing of the skill.

Talon, shameless as ever, chuckles and shrugs off Weslin´s words. “Fair enough. No harm in trying, right? Got to grab any chance that comes your way, hehe.”

Weslin sighs, clearly done with the bootlicking. He glances at the others. “Any more bright questions or comments?”

No one says anything.

Weslin shifts. “Good. Enough gawking. Rookie, let’s go before I start losing brain cells just standing here.”

I follow, but as we head off, I hear Talon’s voice behind us, low but clear. “Remember my friendly face if you make it to the top, mana boy!”

Weslin snorts without turning. “He’s got better things to remember than your mug, and at least get your contract signed before you talk crap.”

That more or less says anything I could answer, so I just turn around.

Then, as we leave through the door, I shrug. Just once.

The expression on Talon’s face is well worth it.