For several seconds Avery just stared back at Kaiden with a blank look on his face.
When he and his sister came into the bar, he never expected that it was to try and recruit him.
Nevertheless, despite having been caught off guard, Avery already knew what his answer was going to be.
"Sorry, I don't plan on working under anyone. Perhaps if you two wanted to become my followers, that'd be another story. But I doubt that's the case."
Kaiden scoffed at Avery's counteroffer and Kasandra hardly offered any response at all. Neither of them took his words seriously and realized that he was not going to join them.
"Well, whatever. I sought you out since you seem to be a promising rookie and I heard that Urs trained you, but I figured it be a long shot. If you change your mind, leave a message for us at the Association. See you around." Kaiden said, turning around and leaving with his sister in tow.
Once they were gone, Avery released a sigh of relief that he had been holding in. He had been worried that his blatant rejection might be met with hostility, but the Twin Fangs, as he had heard them be called, seemed to be sensible.
"You're really something special Avery. I think that's the first time those two have spoken to anyone other than when necessary for a job." Jackson said, looking impressed.
All the other mercenaries began clamoring about how some of the top three star mercenaries in the sector had just tried to recruit Avery.
"Are they really that impressive?" Avery eventually asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"You really don't know?! The two of them are pretty famous around here. They came onto the scene from out of nowhere and started collecting bounties from infamous pirates that had set up base around these parts. I've heard that they're pretty skilled and that they're flying identical medium sized vessels that have been heavily customized. There's also been talk that the two of them are likely to rank up soon and take the top spot among mercenaries in the sector. We've got a lot of two and three stars, but there aren't any four star or higher mercs currently active in this system."
After listening to Ehdo's explanation, Avery was feeling a bit intrigued by the two Woest siblings.
Yet, as he took out his terminal to look up some information on them, someone else burst through the doors with an excited expression on his face.
"Everyone, pull up the mission board! The Alliance Police just posted a big job!" The man shouted.
With wide eyes, all the other mercenaries pulled out their terminals and navigated to the Mercenary Association's site.
On the front page, was an assignment put forward by the local Alliance Police tasked with keeping order in the Yuson System.
There were not any details of what the job entailed, but any and all mercenaries with their own ships, no matter the rank, were being accepted.
"They've got to be arming up to finally exterminate the pirates that have invested the sector."
"I'd say that's likely. After those brazen raids on Dirluc Mining, they've got to do something to show that they can protect the people. Otherwise, the businesses and merchants keeping the colonies here afloat are going to pull out."
"It's been too long since I last participated in a raid. I can't wait to get a big payday taking out those scum."
All of the mercenaries in the bar were immediately alight with enthusiasm. While the details of the request remained unknown, they all figured that their guess was likely the case.
The Alliance Police only did blanket recruitments when something big was going down that they needed a lot of manpower for.
That normally meant an invasion from a hostile power, an outbreak of dangerous space monsters, or most often, the extermination of space pirates.
'It's basically like a bonus stage in a video game. Though, there aren't any respawns if something goes wrong.' Avery thought, pulling up what information he could on similar missions that had been posted in the past.
What he was most interested in was payment, and he was surprised to find that these types of jobs didn't come with much in the way of a standard commission.
It seemed that other than a small reward of three thousand Krenin for participating, hired mercenaries were normally paid depending on the number and types of vessels they took out. Of course, they also received any bounties and whatever was in the cargo holds of the pirate they took out.
"This could be the opportunity I was looking for."
If Avery was able to rack up a sizable number of kills, it would see him receiving a payday that dwarfed what he just earned as security for Dirluc Mining.
Of course, there was the possibility of not taking out a single pirate. In that case he would not be paid much at all and going on the mission would be a waste of time.
This faint worry did not last long, though. Avery was certain that with the Dauntless and Urs' teachings, that he would do just fine in a large raid.
"Okay, let's all go register for this job, and then we can get back to celebrating." One of the mercenaries said, a bottle in his hand raised high.
Everyone else cheered in approval at this, and Avery found himself following behind the others back to the Association building.
For a lot of requests, it was unnecessary to register directly at the branch and could simply be done remotely, but for a mission directly from the Alliance Police , it was required to apply in person.
When Avery and the group he had joined arrived, the building was several times more packed than before. Practically every mercenary residing on Yuson II had shown up to sign up for what was almost certainly going to be the most profitable job of the year.