Episode 7: Guild Recruitment (1)

"...huh?" Squinting his eyes at the sight of the approaching woman, Jace furrowed his brows. "It's her..." Upon taking notice of the determined expression on her face, the young man abruptly turned around, his footsteps soon becoming quicker the next moment. "Yeah, no. I don't wanna get involved with whatever that is."

"...eh?" As the woman saw that Jace had ignored her, she frowned. "HEY! I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU! COME BACK HERE!" Shortly after her words, she began picking up her pace. "STOP!!!"

Almost as if Jace was now being chased by the woman, the black-haired man hurriedly squeezed his way through the crowd, ensuring that she would not catch up to him.

"HEY! MAN WITH THE BLACK HAIR! OI!!" Unfortunately, despite his efforts in ignoring the woman who was pursuing him, she remained persistent. "DON'T IGNORE ME!"

"Ugh... Just leave me alone..." Annoyed by the sudden turn of events, Jace clicked his tongue. In the next second, he took a sharp turn to the right street.

"OIIII!!!" She continued to scream, closely tailing behind Jace.

"Man... This is a hassle..." As the woman continued to aggressively chase after the young man, he frowned. "Why is she so desperate? Can't she take a hint..."

Whatever the reason for her approach, Jace wanted nothing to do with it. All he wished for right now was to be left alone and be without any sort of disturbances.

"Ugh... Is it even worth it now to get her off my tail?" After running for some time, Jace took notice that the area he was in was now far from his original location. He was in a completely different district. "Bah... Whatever. Let's just see if she would still follow me here..."

At that second, Jace abruptly made his way into a quiet alleyway.

"HEYYY!!!" The woman cried out.

But alas, to Jace's dismay, despite heading into the alleyway, the woman still followed after him, even taking the opportunity to speed up in order to close the distance between herself and the young man.

"...are you serious?" As Jace took a quick glance from behind him, his eyes twitched, taking note that the black-haired woman was still as persistent as ever. "...sigh. You know what? This isn't worth it..."

At that moment, Jace abruptly stopped in his place, now facing the woman head-on.

"Hah... Hah... Finally!" Letting out a heavy pant, the woman's footsteps finally came to a halt. Now, she was only a few meters away from Jace. "I caught up with you!"

"..." Staring helplessly at the breathless woman before him, Jace's right hand quietly rested on his holster. "...what do you want from me?"

To even chase Jace all the way into a quiet alleyway, the young man grew suspicious. He knew not of what her deal was, but, he was prepared to run away once again if things took a turn for the worst.

"Hey! I should be asking you that!" The woman clicked her tongue. "Why were you trying to run away from me??? Did you do something illegal or something? Is that why you ran???"

"...no," he sighed. "Have you taken a good look at yourself? If anything, with the way you were so aggressively persistent in chasing me, I thought you wanted to kill me or something."

"Eh? No way!" she raised her brow in confusion. "Why would I want to do that??? You saw me apprehending the thief earlier! I'm good!"

"...uhuh..." Jace slowly nodded his head at the woman. "Then, if you're not here to kill me, why were you following me?"

"Hmm? Oh right, right!" The woman coughed at Jace's question. "Let me introduce myself first. I'm Reine Wang, an A-ranked hunter of Luxur. And... I came here to ask you something!"

"...about?" Jace tilted his head.

"Well... You see... Hmm... How do I say this..." As her words began trailing off, the woman before Jace exhibited the same determined expression from earlier. "Well... To put it frankly... Would you like to join Luxur?!"

"...?" As Jace heard the abrupt reason from Reine, he stared at her in disbelief. "Come again?"

"Hmm? I said what I said!" Reine's eyes sparkled. "Do you wanna join Luxur? This is an invitation!"

"...what? So you chased me all the way here for..." As Jace continued to look at the black-haired woman before him in disbelief, he took a deep breath. "Sigh... No. I'm not interested."

"HUH?! WHY NOT?!" Upon hearing Jace's response, Reine cried out. "You do know that Luxur is one of the top five guilds of Aurelis, right?! Leonard Cromwell is the guild leader! Surely you've heard of him???"

"...yeah, sure, let's just say I have," he shrugged. "But even then, I'm not interested in your offer."

"What? Why not?!" Reine was unable to comprehend Jace's words. "Just give me a second to elaborate more on this—" Just as the woman was about to continue with her sentence, her stomach suddenly growled.

"..." At the sudden rumble, the two hunters stared at each other helplessly.

"...well, I won't keep you here for long," Jace sighed. "If you're only here to give me an offer, then I humbly decline."

"Hey, just wait a second!" she cried out. "Please just hear me out!"

As Jace was about to walk past Reine, his stomach randomly growled as well. "..."

"..." Reine blinked at the scene before her.

...

Within a quiet restaurant near a low-traffic area, Jace and Reine could be seen seated at the corner of the restaurant with two bowls of noodles and a few side dishes on their table.

"Phew~" Slurping down the noodles in her bowl, Reine exhaled a satisfied breath of relief as she turned towards the side dishes next to her. "Man, this is delicious!"

"...uhuh." Compared to the woman before him who was endlessly putting food in her mouth like there was no tomorrow, Jace silently ate his bowl of noodles. "...you sure are enjoying your meal."

"I mean, who wouldn't?" Reine nodded her head happily. "It's delicious! And besides, I haven't eaten all day, so this is a great treat!"

"Yeah..." Jace helplessly sighed, soon turning his attention towards his skill: [ Soul Seer's Eyes ]. "I could tell with the amount of food you ordered..." As Jace unenergetically ate his food, he silently activated the skill on Reine.

[ Hunter Profile ]

Name: Reine Wang

Level: 52

Class: Striker

Race: Human

[ Soul Compatibility ]: 72%.

*Soul Linkage is not available for this person.

[ Titles ]

<Tidal Overflow (S)>

[ Status ]

HP: 520/520 | MP: 638/638

[ Stats ]

STR: A+ | INT: A+

AGI: A+ | MND: A+

END: C+ | LUCK: E

*As this person is not linked, you are unable to see further details of their stats.

[ Soul Compatibility: 72% ]

*Soul Linkage is currently unavailable for this person.

Fulfil the current conditions to link with [Reine]:

-Activate [ Soul Channeler ] on "Reine" once. [ ]

-Enter into an A-ranked or above dungeon with "Reine" and clear it once. [ ]

-Treat "Reine" to a meal after a hard day at work. [ ]

[ Abilities ]

<Bring On the Floods! (S)>

<Spear Mastery (A)>

<Torrent Overflow (A)>

<Tidal Storm (A)>

<Rain of the Serpent (A)>

<After the Rain (A)>

...

After realizing that the two hunters were starving, Jace could only helplessly agree to Reine's proposal of eating together. As such, the two of them headed towards the nearest restaurant that they could find: a noodle place.

"Hey, I like having a variety of dishes, alright?" Reine gulped down her food. "Though, are you sure that you're fine with just a bowl of noodles? Doesn't look like you'd be full just from that!"

"I'm fine," Jace replied, finishing up his meal in the next second. "This is all I need. Anyhow... Since I'm done, I'll leave you to enjoy the rest of your meal." Following his words, Jace stood up from his seat.

"Huh? Hey, wait, wait, wait!" Upon taking notice of Jace's attempt at once again running away, Reine abruptly stood up. "Stop right there! I'm not done with you just yet!"

"...seriously?" Jace blinked at Reine, unamused. "I already told you that I'm not interested."

"I mean... Won't you reconsider?" Reine looked at the young man with a serious expression. "You got an invitation from a top guild and your only reaction is instant rejection?"

"...what is there to even reconsider if I'm not interested?" Jace raised his brow in confusion. "Besides, you never even told me the reason as to why you even extended the invitation in the first place. If anything, I should be sceptical of your motive here."

"Sceptical? Of me???" Reine stared at Jace in shock. "I mean sure, I chased you to an alleyway, and then— Ah... You kind of do have a point there..."

"..." Helplessly glaring at Reine, Jace emitted a sigh as he turned to look at the clock that was on the wall, noting that it was almost 5:30 PM. "Sigh... Fine. I'll hear you out. But, just saying that it won't do much in changing my mind."

"Okay, okay!" Reine nodded her head, soon returning to her seat. "Let me start with introductions again. Ahem. I'm Reine Wang, an A-ranked hunter of Luxur. And I've come to you intending to bring you over to Luxur!"

"And... Why's that?" he asked.

"Well..." Reine scratched her head. "Believe it or not... It's cause you gave off a similar vibe to someone I know!"

"...huh...?" Upon hearing the explanation from Reine, Jace blinked. "That's... All?"

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

"...you expect me to believe that you'd go through all that trouble of inviting someone to join your guild... Just because they have a similar vibe to someone else?" he frowned. "You don't even know my name or even my abilities..."

"Look, this is just gut feeling here!" Reine stated. "Besides, you're the one that shot the thief, right?"

"Me?" Jace tilted his head. "Nope. It was Landon."

"HUH?! Don't lie!"

"...why would I lie? It was Landon."

"How could it be from him if the attack came from an entirely different angle?!"

"Well, Landon's shots are known to be all over the place," Jace reasoned. "It could be just that."

"...what's your class then?"

"Synergist," he stated.

"Huh? Not a Marksman?"

"...why would I be a Marksman?" Jace raised his brow in confusion.

"..." Reine looked at Jace in disbelief, seemingly not buying whatever he just said. "You really didn't shoot the thief?"

"I'm just a mere Synergist," he shook his head helplessly. "That's all."

"Huh...?" Reine blinked. "Is my gut feeling wrong then...?"

"Well... Seeing as how you thought that I was a Marksman, you've probably got the wrong impression of me," he stated. "Frankly speaking, with that kind of wrong impression, the entire basis for getting me to join your guild... Kind of falls off."

"Hey, wait just a second here!" Reine cried out. "Ignoring all that, why are you even so adamant about rejecting my guild invitation? It's a top guild for one, so any hunter receiving this invite would be thrilled! And second of all, from the looks of it, it isn't like you're in any guild either, so there's nothing stopping you!"

"Honestly, there's no reason," he nodded his head. "I'm just going with the flow, really. Right now, I'm not at all interested in joining a guild. And I don't think I'll be interested in joining one in the future as well."

From the very start of his hunter career, Jace found the concept of guilds a complete enigma. To him, it was something that was shackling. He didn't want to deal with any unnecessary responsibilities. Instead, he much preferred doing his job at his own pace.

"..." Reine glared at the young man. "What kind of reason is that??? Surely you understand that if you want access to higher-level dungeons, you need to join a guild, right? Heck, to even remotely progress your career as a hunter, you need to join a guild and—"

"I'll stop you right there." Jace held up his palm in front of Reine. "First of all, I don't think you know what my rank is to be saying all that. Second of all, I don't think the thought of me not wanting any of those things came across your mind. And finally... You've clearly got a very wrong impression of me."

"Huh???" Taken aback by Jace's statement, Reine raised her brow in confusion. "What rank are you then? Given my 'wrong impression of you', I'd say A-rank!"

"While being A-rank would be nice, I'm F-rank," Jace smiled.

"...huh?" Reine blinked. "...come again?"

"I'm F-rank," he repeated.

"..." Staring at Jace in silence for a few seconds, Reine's eyes suddenly opened wide in shock. "WHAT?!"