98. The game (IV)

“She what?!” Rodney got up in a yell. A powerful urge to kill was running rampant as his blood lust lingered in the air.

“Stayed behind.” Sarah was trying her best not to be squandered by his aura. Even the people around him were having a difficult time looking up as they knew that their leader’s anger was mind-numbing.

“Calm down, Rodney.” Mike was the first to speak, he put his hand on the back of his head, leaning back with his foot crossed on the other. “She said she will meet us at the next level. I trust she will make it.”

“Snow shouldn’t have broken apart from our main team!” Rodney was pissed off that he didn’t stay behind or even dragged her onto the both if he could.

“Yea, and what would you have done with the rest of the other group?” Mike eventually turned around. “Why didn’t you stay behind?”

Rodney growled, his eyes staring daggers into Mike’s face. “I have left my second in command to bring them.” He sharply replied, telling Mike that he wasn’t phased by Mike’s taunting.

“What about you. I thought you guys were close to her.”

Mike shrugged. “We trust her.” He didn’t say anymore.

“Are you sure you didn’t just want to save face?”

“You can cut it whichever way you like, bud. It’s still the same. We’ll meet her again.” Mike turned back around, this time he closed his eyes as he went off to doze off.

Mike, who was pretending to sleep, was nudged by Dairen. Dairen was sitting next to him, partially waking him up. He did not look over as he didn’t want to deal with Rodney’s tantrum.

“You think it was a wise idea to egg him on like that?” Dairen spoke, taking a peek over his shoulder. He could see that Rodney was still cussing up a storm as if he lost a valuable asset.

“Why not? Wouldn’t you?” Mike slightly opened his eyes and tilted his head without showing much movement. “I’m surprised you didn’t say anything back.”

Dairen was silent. He didn’t have much to say.

“I get it. You’re worried.” Mike rolled his eyes. He stretched, breaking the illusion that he was trying to sleep. “She’s a Saintess. Do you think someone of her caliber would just croak?”

“No.”

“Exactly, her status window updated even more, plus with the new title as a Saintess, who knows what kind of miracle she could conjure up. She's like the last person we should worry about, honestly." Mike chuckled. "Plus, she's not the type of girl that would just flip over and show her belly. I always thought a Saintess would be some girl who needed protection like those fanatical church priestesses, but she carries a sword around and slices up her enemy. I don’t know what kind of Saintess that is, but that’s nothing like the ones I know.”

"You don't know any other Saintresses except her." Dairen countered.

“True, but I read them in web novels.” Mike chuckled.

"Still, she does have a knack of getting into trouble, though you should be careful not to say that word to her. She doesn't like it."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Mike laughed, knowing full well what Dairen meant. “And a knack to get us out of trouble.” He eventually stopped laughing as his expression turned serious. "Plus, what you really need to worry about is what you are going to do about that skill that you showed off in that previous round."

“What are you talking about?” said Dairen. He had an inkling of what Mike was getting at, knowing him he was worried about a few consequences that he had brought with him.

“Your minions. What you did at the fight. I’ve heard some unsavory rumors about it.”

“Ah, you mean my ability.” Dairen shrugged it off. “It’s no big deal.”

“I don’t know, Dairen. Some of the Hunters that are with us have been keeping an eye on you. Whatever you did didn’t seem right for them. I suggest you keep it on the down-low if I were you. Plus, Rodney seems to have a thing against you for killing his teammate.”

A wave of rising anger erupted in Dairen's heart. "That bastard was trying to kill me."

“I know. We all saw it.”

“Then what is his problem?” His voice was getting a bit too loud that Mike had to nudge him to calm him down.

Dairen gritted his teeth, forming his hand into a fist.

"Jealousy."

“For?”

"Your ability and mine," Mike said with a laid back manner. This was true, even if Rodney didn’t show it, they could feel it with his gaze.

“I knew he was jealous of you because of your job title, but me? Hardly.” Dairen brushed it off as if it was nothing.

"I don't know. You have a name for yourself, you know," Mike said. "He is the type of wanting to collect the best of the best into this guild. You and I didn't fall into his hand. Instead, we made our own and took the best players one by one. I wouldn't be surprised that he sees us as a threat."

“True. Rodney did have a thing against us reeling in some high-level players.” Dairen nodded, understanding what he meant. He had seen how Rodney really worked. Since they started to build their own guild, their network of information was starting to bud in their favor. He kept a close eye on certain details.

“The usual paying them out with high salaries or items.” Dairen shrugged. He knew how valuable items were in this world, and there weren’t many of them. Even getting good armor was difficult as there weren’t many enchanted armors that they could use without having to pay a ton of money.

As usual, money was the driving force.

The only thing that was lacking behind their guild was the high pay, but in exchange, the connection that they had in the world was growing deep. With their immediate connection to Snow and Heather, they had jumped leaps and bounds in collecting items. Many Players had become jealous of such relations as they tried to break their connections with the Dragon Express.

Some had tried to connect with Lily, but that didn’t form too well. Everyone knew that her quest was flimsy and sometimes went the darker end of the spectrum that brought more deficit than gain.

"Not like we can't compete with items," Dairen replied though he had been searching for different sources that could increase their income a bit more.

“Exactly, which makes our guild a great potential to invest in. Did you know we got some big offers back at home?”

“We did?” Dairen didn’t really pay attention to the workings at home as much as he liked. He left that to Mike, who had a better understanding of such complexity as he was a son of a pretty well-known businessman. He didn’t find this out until much later.

“Yes, I believe the Grandmondium wants a slice in the pie.”

“That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.” Dairen knew well what kind of business Grandmondium was. They were a large tycoon that had already invested in many different guilds, bringing their power into this world.

“You tell me.” Mike shook his head, “though I think we might have gotten a different offer from a small company.”

“Who?”

“Yami Hikari. I believe.”

Dairen went silent, realizing what he just said. “You should take that deal.”

“What’s the sudden interest? I thought you would shoot it down.”

“Let’s just say I know them, and it’s a good company to work with. You’ll probably get more benefit from them.”

“I’ll look into it once we get out.” Mike took note. He knew that Dairen wouldn’t just casually throw out such things without reason.

“Anyways, keep your head down. Your ability is going to get you in trouble if you aren’t careful.”

Dairen knew full well what he had meant. He shook his head. "I usually do. Still, we will need every ability we can get. I was hoping that I would stumble on some more monster corpses, but so far, this dungeon hadn't given us such things. It's just too weird if you get what I mean."

“Yes, it is.”

Even though this was the second dungeon that they have gone into, the Player forum had broad rays of different dungeons that helped them level up and fight monsters constantly. There wasn’t any dungeon like this where they were pit against each other and even fought to get to the next area. It was...dangerous. More so than the other dungeons that they had read so far.

Player killing was common, but it wasn't as bad as what they had been facing now, as many knew that helping one another to get through these dungeons, brought more benefit than killing one another. It was only the Player Killers that took it to the extreme killing Players and other humans for their own sick pleasure.

“I hope this dungeon doesn’t keep going with these stupid games. I want to fight some actual monsters and level up some more. I barely even gained a level.” Mike grunted. Many of the people barely even leveled as well, making this dungeon a bit more worrisome as they hoped that the boss at the end of the dungeon wasn’t as dangerous as they had fought in the previous dungeon.

Dairen slunk back into his chair, trying to get comfortable. It wasn’t often that he would have a momentary peace from danger. He took advantage of it as he closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind as best as possible.

There were many things that he had to accomplish and do. He had a nagging feeling that Rodney had more plans up under his sleeve, and he didn't like it. This was especially so when he was trying to poach his guild members again with the taste for money and items.

Luckily for them, he trusted that his guild members would not turn because their loyalty wasn’t bought.