Another Flag

(MC POV)

I've decided to make Jin city our base for the next few weeks.

The Adventurer's Guild has been rather busy lately and from what I hear, Mercenary Practitioners are rather few in number right now.

It would be a good chance for both Manami and Lian Li to get some experience in working with other team members while I get some connections outside of my Sect.

Hey, it's important to network you know?

Huh? Why do I know terms like 'network'?

Thanks to that psycho Practitioner of course. Being sent by that stupid "truck-kun" stick to another world made me learn a lot of things that I never thought possible. I pity those 'salarymen' really, I think their life is harder than mine when I was trash.

Speaking of which, maybe I should introduce some of the food here, I miss all those delicious fried food and stuff too.

I guess I'll try making them later.

In the meantime, I tasked Lian Li and Manami to take Requests to gain experience.

Cai Hong was taken with them since they wanted to bond with her or something.

Oh well, I assumed that it was a girl's motherly instincts or something so I let it be.

It's better for Cai Hong to be with young girls than an old man (mentally) like me anyway.

In the meantime, I should go meet some people to network.

I always wondered why they're called Adventurers when they barely did any adventuring. They're either exterminating monsters or doing fetch quests and other odd jobs.

If anything, they should be called odd jobbers instead.

***

The head of the Adventurer's Guild, Markus, sat in front of me, a guild receptionist placing a cup of tea between the two of us.

"So what can I do for the famed Master Lin of Heaven Sect?"

I took a sip of the tea, not as good as Manami's but passable I suppose.

"I have heard that there is a severe lack of Mercenary Practitioners at the moment."

Markus nodded his head, "That is true, there's an influx of Fighters and Archers but we have very few Practitioners that are working with us at the moment. I believe most of them are preparing for your annual Sect Showcase Festival."

Ah yes, it was the annual gathering of all Grand Sects and numerous Minor Sects to showcase their disciples' talents.

Many Mercenary Practitioners would also participate in order to exchange pointers from veterans there as well.

Since it's quite a big event, many Practitioners would enter closed door cultivation at this point in time.

What about my disciples and I?

Have you seen the monstrous improvements we've been making? I scare myself with how fast I'm cultivating sometimes that I'm afraid I might not even be human anymore.

My two disciples are also absolute geniuses too, you know? Add with the cheating instructions I'm giving them, they're completely broken now.

Closed door cultivation? More like NEET cultivation.

What they need now is to know how broken they are, so pairing them with some normal people and go out to fulfil Requests would be the best way right now. Once they know about the power difference, I will get them to learn how to control their strength and to hide their abilities in time for the festival.

That way I won't draw too much attention to myself. Well, less than what I already have at least.

As for me…

Well I'm just here to kill time really.

And since I can make some extra money by the side, why not right?

I nodded sagely, too bad I didn't have a beard or I could stroke it to appear more even more sagely. Not that I actually do plan to grow one, mind you.

"Anyway, I have two disciples who need more experience in the outside world. I'll let them participate in a few of your Guild Requests just for a small cut of the pay. I myself, will take a few of the harder ones should anyone require help for a minimal fee."

"Hmm… In that case, would Master Lin mind helping me check up on a team?" Markus asked, scratching his head. "They took a Request a few days ago but they have yet to return, we're kind of worried now."

"Oh? What were they supposed to do?"

"There's a group of notorious bandits up north of here, they've been a pain for quite a while now so someone put a Request to get rid of them."

Bandits? How many bloody bandits are there?! Don't tell me it's the same bloody group that's been robbing me all this while? Why are there so many godforsaken bandits here?!

This is an event flag isn't it? This whole thing is just screaming of a flag.

The bandits would've probably captured them by now and it's up to me to save them, I can bet my money on it.

Oh well, just point me in the right direction I guess, best to save them before something bad happens if it hasn't already.

Meanwhile, my disciples would just tag along with another Adventurer group with their own Requests and that should be it for now.

After getting the directions from Markus, I headed into the mountain path which they were supposedly hiding at.

Lian Li and Manami had already picked up a Request together with an Adventurer group early in the morning with Cai Hong following along. Since the Adventurers are rather new as well, their Request should be completed within the day.

Hopefully they don't run into trouble. Despite their OP-ness, anything can still happen. Maybe I should've placed a scrying technique on them?

No good, I'm worrying about my disciples too much. I need to let them spread their wings on their own too. The alarm technique I placed on them should be enough for now.

I should just concentrate on my own task.

Now then, I'll just walk past this narrow road in between these two giant rocks which seems like a prime spot for an ambush.

"Stop right there! This is a robbery!"

Oh wow, surprise, surprise, a bunch of bandits popped out from behind the boulders.

(Monotone) "Oh no, please don't hurt me, I have no money!" I pleaded.

The bandits looked at me weirdly, why are you looking at me like that? Is it that weird for a person being robbed to surrender?

"Umm… Yeah, this… We're here for your money!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, about that. Didn't I already say I've got no money? So just take me to your boss so you can ransom me or something."

"Huh? Why would we take you to our boss?"

"What? You call yourselves bandits? Of course if your target has no money, you kidnap them and ask their family for ransom right?"

"What? No! We just take whatever they hav—"

I slung my arm around his shoulder, "What? I couldn't hear you. You'll take me back to your boss's place right?"

"Huh? Are you crazy? What are you even—"

I tightened my arm around him, "You'll bring me back to your hideout right?"

"Wha… Wha… Who are…"

"It's the obvious next step isn't it?" I let loose a little of my Elemental Pressure. "Just take me to your boss."

"… O… Ok…"

Heh, easy.

See, if you're polite enough, people would just acquiesce to your requests.

This is why the Earthen Plane is so much better than the other Planes.