’What does this guy want again?’ Lilly thought with a frown on her face.
"What is it?" she asked in a cold tone.
"He never even showed his full strength," Brunt said, his voice firm. "Don’t you think it’s only right for members of the guild to at least see that, even if he’s qualified like you claim?"
There was a moment of silence, and the members whispered among themselves, supporting him.
In fact, even the other recruits had doubtful expressions on their faces. They felt it wasn’t fair to recruit Gabriel into the guild just like that.
Lilly stared at Brunt with a cold gaze. "If he had, you wouldn’t be standing here right now."
With that, she and Gabriel exited the hall.
As soon as they left, gasps echoed across the gallery.
"Damn..."
"She’s right. That kid... he stopped his punch just before it landed. With that speed..."
"I couldn’t even see him move until it was over."
Back on the training ground, Brunt let out a long sigh and muttered, "Tch... damn kids these days."
He turned to the gallery, noticing some of the older adventurers staring at him.
"What are you looking at?" he sneered. "If you don’t have something to do, go do it and make yourselves useful!"
Immediately, not daring to get on his bad side, they scattered quickly, returning to whatever they were doing.
Meanwhile, Gabriel quietly followed Lilly through the corridors of the Adventurer Guild.
Soon, he broke the silence, asking, "What’s the Elite Squad all about? Will I have access to higher-ranking missions?"
"Yes." She nodded. "The Elite Squad is made up of only a few individuals, and most of the missions are related to keeping the Valerian Kingdom safe—both internally and externally."
’Hmmm, now that I remember, the Valerian Kingdom has its own fair share of enemies here in the human continent,’ Gabriel thought. ’Especially the Tialan Kingdom, home of martial arts.’
He recalled the reason for their conflict was that the Valerian Kingdom was mostly made up of knights and mages, while the Tialan Kingdom favored warriors and martial artists.
Naturally, martial artists believed Qi was superior to mana, and vice versa for mages—hence the rivalry. Both sides were constantly trying to prove their philosophy was superior.
In his first life, Gabriel had thought the developers had done a great job creating such rivalries, but now that he had become a character in the game, he realized things were even deeper.
’Perhaps the most neutral kingdom is the Edgeburne Kingdom at the end of the human starting area.’
"So what’s the Temporary Elite Squad Observation? Is it a trial period for me or an evaluation?" he asked as they arrived before a door.
Lilly opened the door to a room, stepping inside. "You can say that," she replied, gesturing to the room.
"The guild also provides residential lodging for its members. You can stay here in the meantime, or you can decline the offer. The reason for this is to make members’ lives more convenient and allow quicker response in case of emergencies."
"It’s fine, I’ll take it," Gabriel said. "I suppose it’s not free?"
"It’s not. Everyone is required to pay 2,000 Valerian Dollars monthly."
[AN: The currency of the Valerian Kingdom is Valerian Dollars. I didn’t indicate this at the start, but I’ll be editing previous Chapters.]
He didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh at this.
’That crook Thomas, always finding a way to extort Awakened.’
Wasn’t he basically running a hotel? The only difference was that it was solely for the Awakened.
Either way, since he needed somewhere in the meantime to complete his goals, he accepted nonetheless.
Besides, money wasn’t really a big problem—he could always hunt in the wilderness and sell items to Damian.
"Well, that’s all for now," Lilly said, turning to leave. "A few hours from now, someone will show up with your first mission and evaluate you based on your performance."
"Please take note: although the Vice Leader deems you fit to join the Elite Squad, if you perform poorly during the evaluation, you’ll be relegated to the Iron or Gold Talon Squad."
"I’ll keep that in mind," he nodded.
On her way out, she handed him a manual that seemed to contain information about the guild.
Gabriel was soon left alone. His gaze roamed the room. It was fairly small, with a bunk-style bed, a desk, a kitchenette, and a bathroom. The space was kept in pristine condition, and the window gave a perfect backdrop of the Royal City.
He sat down on the bed and began to flip through the manual.
From it, he learned about the guild hierarchy structure. Most of this, he was already familiar with.
He learned that there were about five squads even within the Adventurer Guild.
After the President, Thomas Voss, and his daughter, Scarlet Voss, the ones with the highest authority were the squad leaders.
The names of the squads in order from weakest to strongest were: Bronze Squad, Silver Fang Squad, Iron Squad, Golden Talon Squad, and Elite Squad.
Gabriel spent more time studying the guild manual, using it as a reference for his own future guild.
’In my past life, my guild had been so disorganized,’ he thought. ’This time, I won’t make that mistake.’
Reading more about the structure of the guild, he realized why NPC guilds were so powerful—and why even in the later parts of the game, no player-created guild could match their strength.
It was all because of how organized they were, with several squads and roles evenly spread among members.
After consuming a sufficient amount of information, he finally got up, stretched a little, and walked out to check on the other recruits.
He arrived at the training room, where a few members were present, and glanced below. But since there was nothing interesting, he returned to his room.
Soon, a knock sounded on his door. Thinking it was the person who wanted to conduct his evaluation, he opened it.
* * *
Don’t forgot to support Extraction Talent!