First Job [2]

Rosa stopped in front of me and panted for breath.

"It's not a problem. The office is not open yet. They are still sorting the people."

Rosa let out a sigh of relief as she patted her chest. "Thank god! I thought that I was late!"

"Well, you are right on time." I pointed at the office. The crowd began to enter one by one, following the instructions of the employees. "Shall we enter too?"

"Yes. I will take you directly to the one who will give you your tag. I have made an appointment already." She boasted with a big smile.

"That's reassuring. As expected from the Sacred Relic, you could even contact the Awakener Association's employees." I chuckled as I teased Rosa.

However, she wasn't aware that I was just joking. She was proud of her connection as she puffed her chest and boasted.

"Of course we are! Do you change your mind after seeing our connection? Do you want to join us?"

"Nah, no." I waved my hand at her. "Let's just go in. I bet you will get a good member today."

I walked to the office with Chloe following from behind. Rosa was confused by my words, but she ultimately followed us inside the office.

***

"Here is your Mercenary Tag. Please keep them safe. It will be used as your identification when you accept a request from the guilds. Some guilds only hire a mercenary who has this tag. Please do note that."

The receptionist handed a small star-shaped badge with a logo of two swords crossing in the middle, and Annihilator was written below the swords. It indicated that the Association had officially acknowledged the Mercenary Group.

A Mercenary Group could operate without this tag, but some guilds only trust a Mercenary Group that had this tag. One of those guilds was Sacred Relic, so I was forced to get this tag because of our relationship with them.

Well, it was also thanks to Rosa that the process to get this tag was simple. I only needed to go to the receptionist, and she gave it to me in less than a minute.

Chloe was looking at the tag curiously, so I handed it to her. "Here. You can hold it, Chloe."

"Are you sure?" She asked as she took the tag from my hand.

"You are more trustworthy than me. So I am counting on you to hold this tag."

"What he said is correct. I am about to suggest letting Chloe hold the tag too. A lot of guilds have already trust Chloe, considering her previous position, as... you know?" Rosa chimed from behind. She was watching the new Awakeners that registered one by one on the counter adjacent to this one.

"Alright." Answered Chloe. There was a smile on her face; it seemed like she was happy because Rosa and I trusted her. She carefully put the tag inside her magic bag.

Rosa smiled when she saw what Chloe had done.

"Anyway, there is someone your age this time. It's honestly rare. Usually, people are Awakened in their late 19 or early 20." She turned to Zaiden, who sat in the front seat.

I also turned to him. He was staring at the receptionist excitedly.

"That guy, huh?" I muttered. I felt Chloe's gaze from behind. I glanced back and winked my eyes at her.

She nodded her head slightly to answer.

"Yes. He's wearing an Academy uniform, and I do know him from Miss Ao." Said Rosa. "Oops. I am taking dibs on him, you know? Don't invite him to join your Mercenary Group. Hahahaha. I never thought that he would be Awakened today! What a lucky day." She laughed, but her tone was not a joking one.

So she had heard about Zaiden? It was not strange, considering that he won the Academy sparring tournament twice.

Ao must've recommended him to the Sacred Relic guild through Rosa. As proof, Rosa knew about his existence even before he was Awakened.

"It seems like you have high hopes for him." I glanced at Rosa, hinting that I was curious about why she was interested in Zaiden.

"I am. He won the famous Academy sparring tournament two times in a row. So I do have high hopes for his Talents." Rosa answered without trying to hide the fact about Zaiden.

"Is that so?" I turned my gaze to Zaiden once again.

We didn't need to move from our spot or be afraid of disturbing the work of the receptionist beside us as this counter only opened when they had an appointment. Rosa had dealt with my appointment this morning, and it seemed there was no other appointment as the receptionist closed the counter.

At that time, the guy who registered had finished. He was a common Awakener with 2 C-Rank Talent and 1 D-Rank Talent. Maybe he would make some bucks hunting in C-Rank Dungeon all his life. My condolence, you were not talented enough.

"Next!" The receptionist called out, and this time, Zaiden stood up.

"Yes!" He answered excitedly.

Lily made guts pose and muttered, "I hope you have good Talents!" to Zaiden, to which he replied with a confident grin.

He knew his Talent, a cheat character with triple S-Talent that only ever appeared to someone with a Hero Trait such as Chloe in the story. He registered swiftly, and then he put his hand on top of the Artifact that read the Talent of someone.

Then, the same sight when I was registered happened once again. The room went quiet all of a sudden when Zaiden's Talents appeared on the screen.

-----

Zaiden Archman

Swordsmanship (S)

Magic (S)

Martial Arts (S)

----

I mean, who wouldn't be surprised when they saw Talents like that? Even my Talents were surprising enough to shut their mouths, so how about triple S-Rank Talents?

"Triple S! Please excuse me!" Rosa shouted excitedly. She dashed to Zaiden, similar to what she did when we first met after Zaiden got his Awakener ID.

I guess I could leave them be. I knew that Zaiden would join Sacred Relic.

"Shall we go first, Chloe? We will be late if we stay here any longer." I called out to Chloe, who was watching the screen that showed Zaiden's Talents.

She turned to me and nodded. "Yes. Let's go."

We then exited the office, and a loud shout burst out from within as we closed the door behind us.

***

Hollywood Dungeon was not too far from the Awakener Association's office, so we were walking to get there. We still had around 5 minutes; it would be enough time to get there.

I could guess that they would be late because of Zaiden, though. They should be flocking in the office right now as I saw some Awakeners run past us without even glancing at Chloe. It was an unusual sight. No one ever ignored Chloe.

Even Chloe was silent when she saw Zaiden's Talents. I had told her that he was a savior, so she should've guessed his triple S Talents to some extent.

"Rai… Zaiden's Talents… They are very similar to mine. Is his Trait also?" She asked in a low voice as we were walking adjacent to each other.

"No. He's not a Hero like you." I quickly shot down her question.

Maybe she still couldn't believe that someone like Zaiden was not a Hero. He was fit to be a Hero with his Talents, as it mirrored Chloe's Talent to a T. The only difference was he had Swordsmanship instead of Polemanship.

"His Trait is a rare one, but it's also dangerous, similar to your Hero Trait. However, I can assure you that he's not a Hero. He's a guy far from that."

At least, the Zaiden in my novel was a guy who was far from the word Hero. He was more fit with a description of a Villain instead of a Hero, seeing how he was willing to sacrifice the world to save his loved one.

I was not too sure about this Zaiden, though. He had some Hero-complex in his action, but I wonder, would he be willing to sacrifice the world to save his loved one like the original Zaiden?

'I am looking forward to his choice at that time.'

"I see…"

"Yes. No one but you will ever take the spot of Hero. However, your role will be done in a few years, Chloe. Please just bear it until then."

"Un." She gave me a nod. "But you will help me, right? In my role."

"I will. That's why I created this Mercenary Group."

She smiled sweetly at me, "I know." Her walking pace became faster; she left me behind. She stopped at the intersection and turned to me with a wide smile.

"And I am thankful for that!" She muttered in a low voice. However, I could hear her due to my superior hearing.

'That girl… Is she trying to make me fall for her?' I thought as I took my pace.

***

[08:30 AM]

[Hollywood Dungeon's Entrance]

We arrived at the meeting's location on time, but as expected…

"They are late…" Chloe grumbled; her face turned into a slight frown.

The one who requested us to be the instructor was late. Only two guards from the Esper Association were in the area, guarding the dungeon's entrance. As this dungeon was a low-ranked one, the entrance was similar to a normal cave.

We were sitting in the waiting area not far from the entrance, the supposed meeting location with our requester. If the flow was similar to my novel, our requester should've met with Zaiden on his way to this place and invited him to join his party for today's raid.

He should have one companion with him, so when he heard a new Awakener with triple S Talents appeared, he approached him with good intentions to make a connection with him.

"Well, they should be here at any minute. Be patient, Chloe." I answered Chloe as I pulled out the sunglasses Artifact from my magic bag.

Chloe was watching me with interest. She tilted her head and asked, "You are going to wear that?"

"Yup. You did see the effect, no?" I replied with a smile and put the glasses on.

This Artifact had a nasty effect. At first, I wrote about this Artifact to make a joke item with crazy effects. Who would've expected that I would be transmigrated here? This item would help me a lot in this world.

I quietly opened the item's description.

-----

[Horus' Sunglasses] [Artifact]

[Null Attribute]

The sunglasses created to imitate the eyes of the famed god, Horus.

Special Skill:

- [Horus Eyes] Mighty Eyes

You can see your target no matter where they are.

Activation Cost: One of your eyes will be blind for three days after activation.

Effect:

- Enhanced Sight

Your eyesight is enhanced.

- Pry

You can see Awakener's status by infusing mana into the sunglasses.

-----

'I should praise my genius self for writing about this item in my novel.'

Although the special effect was simple, it would help me greatly by combining it with my [Arash Bow], where the special effect was firing nine arrows that could reach anywhere in the world.

The best part of this sunglasses was the Pry effect, as I could see someone's status by infusing mana into it. I tried to look at Chloe and infuse some mana into the sunglasses. Her status was then displayed in my eyes.

-----

Status

Name: Chloe

Rank: B

Strength: A

Agility: A

Endurance: A-

Mana: A

Luck: A

Talent:

- Magic (S)

- Martial Arts (S)

- Polemanship (S)

Trait:

- Hero

-----

She was really on the verge of advancing to A-Rank. She only needed to increase her Endurance or any stat a rank above, and she would advance to A-Rank.

"Rai? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"My bad. I tried to use one of the sunglasses effects, you see?"

"Ah, the Pry one?"

"Yes. It seems that you are still not able to advance to A-Rank?"

"Yeah," Chloe answered dejectedly. "But I believe I will be able to advance soon. I plan to raid an A-Rank dungeon when I am free."

"Good luck with that." I cheered her up.

At that time, I felt someone approaching from a distance and looked in that direction. Chloe also noticed the new presence that approached us, so she also turned at the same time as I.

"It seems they are here." I muttered and stood up, followed by Chloe.

In the distance, three boys, one of them I was familiar with, appeared. The leader, a long cyan-haired boy, pointed in my direction. I would surely mistake him for a girl if I didn't know that he was a boy, considering how cute he was.

But, I knew about him, as I created him myself to satisfy my readers' love for traps.

The familiar face within the group was surprised when he saw us. I smirked under my mask as I managed to surprise him twice today.

'You would've never expected this, aren't you, Zaiden?'

I approached them while Chloe followed from behind and greeted them.

"Nice to meet you guys. I am Rai from Annihilator, and she's Chloe." Chloe nodded her head at my introduction.

"Ah, yes! Thank you for accepting my request umm… Mr. Rai? I am Vane Yard, the one who put on the request in the Awakener's Lounge. Please take care of me!" The cyan-haired trap bowed his head cutely. I felt like my heart was being pierced by something when I saw acted cutely.

This… This was bad. Where did I order his illustration that day? The illustrator did a fucking good job to the point Vane became really similar to a girl.

Remember Vincent! He's a boy. He's a fucking boy!

I came back to my senses and cleared my throat with a cough.

"Nice to meet you too. Are you ready to raid the dungeon today?"

The trap, Vane, raised his head and answered excitedly. "Yes!"

The man beside him nodded his head sagely. While Zaiden was still frozen like a statue.