Another Day Another Raid II

"Ezra, you're back." A woman said, as Ezra opened the door and walked in. She was the caretaker of the children in the orphanage. "I'll prepare some hot water. How was work today?" She continued, as she finished up in the kitchen.

"Not bad. I even made some decent cash this time, and I think I might make even more tomorrow when we complete the final gate." He said, while taking off his shoes and coat.

Ezra did come back late from cashing in the drops from the dungeon. For whatever reason, the line was long that day, so it took longer than usual. "The others?"

"They had the occasion today, so everyone has gone to bed already from exhaustion, even Cassie." The woman responded. "I've put the water on fire, go and prepare, it should be ready soon."

"Ok. I'll drop some money on the table, check it!" Ezra said, as he headed to his room.

Though it was a government managed orphanage, lately they had not been getting funds from the government at all, and it wasn't like they were getting a lot to begin with. They now had to fend for themselves.

.

The place had no electricity since they were yet to pay their bills, which they have been owing for some time now, so Ezra used the touch light placed on the table for illumination.

The water was ready soon, and Ezra got to take his bath. After that, he came down for dinner, since he had eaten nothing outside.

"Tomorrow, We'll be heading for the last raid in Jaka, so I may not return until the day after." Ezra said, as he ate his food.

Margaret, who was the caretaker of the children at the orphanage seemed a little worried hearing this. Ezra had a bad habit of not taking good care of himself as much as she was concerned, so him being away like that made her worry if he would be alright.

Of course, Ezra was capable of taking care of himself, he wasn't a child or teenager anymore; he was an adult now, 23 years of age.

Both of them discussed about some things until he was done eating and even then stayed for a bit before deciding to call it a day and retire to their rooms.

Margaret was like a mother to Ezra, as she was the one who looked after him ever since he was abandoned at the orphanage. Over the years, the caretakers kept changing and all, but Margaret remained, so it was normal that he was close to her than the others.

Ezra fell asleep not long after touching his bed. He had no expectations from the job the next day really, it was just another day to him. It wasn't the first time. The only difference this time though, was that it was a D rank dungeon. His first D rank dungeon.

Ezra tried not to think too much of it anymore and went to sleep.

At dawn, before the children were up, Ezra was already dressed and ready to leave, as they were to be travelling by road.

Ezra met up with Oscar and some of the others they were travelling with. Today, there were going to be around 12 of them raiding the dungeon, and Ezra was travelling with 5 excluding Oscar.

They eventually arrived at their destination, Jaka, after 2 hours of travel, and from the transport terminal, they left for the gate's destination.

Arriving at the gate site, the association workers were there. They had many people working in the association at all levels, and since they also had normal people working, shifts could be ran, and so there were always people present at gate sites once discovered.

After sometime, everyone was present, and the leader of the team left to meet with the association people for a bit.

"Alright guys, we're all clear to move out." The leader said as he walked towards the group. They were thirteen of them who will be raiding that day. In addition to seven of them that came there that morning, six others joined. They were the second team that was raiding other gates in other areas.

"The porters and the rest are yet to come, but before we are done, they should be here. But, we can't wait for them, it will mess up the schedule, so…" the leader said.

As this was not a proper guild and just a privately assembled raid team, it meant that they had to hire people for other roles as well. Normally, the porter was part of the mining team and would arrive at the same time with them, but seeing as they were yet to come, something had to be done about it. The raid could not be compromised.

"We need a volunteer. Don't worry, you will still be treated as one who raided with us and not a porter, so don't worry."

Even after saying that, no one seemed to want to raise their hands. "How about a bonus? Get paid the money for being a porter as well.. Huh?"

Ultimately, as no one was willing, everyone turned to Ezra as he was clearly the weakest out of the bunch. It only made sense.

'Ah, great.'

"Come on, it's not that bad. Here, take this." someone in the team said to Ezra as he was being handed all that he needed.

'At least I get to receive extra pay. I just hope they don't go back on their word.' He thought to himself, as he walked behind the group towards the entrance.

"Come on, don't be so moody." Said Oscar.

"I'm not."

"Besides, it's a D rank dungeon, so… Huh? Huh?" Oscar teased, but was ultimately ignored.

They all headed in, and so, the raid begun.

.

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The raid team was so good and well coordinated that Ezra didn't even feel like he was in a D rank dungeon. They did say most of them were D rank hunters and even experienced, but still, he never expected it to be this easy. At this point, it was basically easy money. Ezra was really enjoying his job as a porter, not like he would have been able to kill any of the monsters in this dungeon the way he saw it.

"I can't believe it's this hard even for you. Aren't you supposed to be C rank?" Ezra said to Oscar, as he rested after facing a monster wave.

"Shut the fuck up. Aren't you supposed to be collecting drops?" Oscar asked.

Ezra had forgotten that he was the porter for that raid and actually joined Oscar to rest. After each face off with the monsters, there was always a break for the hunters to rest, and for the porter to work. Now that Ezra was acting porter, he had to do his job.

As he picked up the drops, he couldn't help but fantasize if they were all his.

Drop from monsters are crystal looking objects that drop after each monster dies. They come in varying shapes and sizes, and the way it worked was that everyone would get the drop of the monster they killed. Ezra, who rarely kills anything powerful, or anything for that matter, scarcely gets any of these drops.

The drops are expensive and fetch a decent price in the market, with some even being enough to buy a luxury car, but the ones Ezra got were only enough to pay for food and a couple bills at best.

'Whatever man.'

*Clap clap

"Alright, that's enough rest. Let's get moving." Said the leader, before they all matched.

.

The raid continued until they reached the section where the boss monster resided.

This was no boss room, and there was no metal door gated to the ceiling, it was basically a section of the dungeon where the boss monster resided. The boss monster would typically not make a move until it was disturbed, and then the boss battle will begin.

Normally, Ezra always joined raids in E rank Dungeons, as anything higher was clearly dangerous for him. Even in those raids, he would do as much as possible to stay out of the boss fight, since there really was nothing he could offer.

This time, though, he wasn't the only one staying behind, and this time they really stayed behind, a distance from everything happening.

"Alright, my little man, let the pros go handle the tough ones." Oscar said, before leaving. His ability was strictly telekinesis, and at the C rank, he wasn't really much either, but his ability could be pretty useful sometimes.

The boss fight began, and soon Ezra could clearly tell the difference between himself and the rest that were not weak.

For the most part, he was unable to read the movements of those hunters fighting the boss monster. The only time he saw them was when they met with the monster in a clash, or the occasional blur and after images. And to think these people were only D rank.

The only ones he could follow were the healer and Oscar, who were the magicians in the group. Yes, even magicians were stronger than him in every way. He also quickly saw the difference between each class, as some seemed to have more speed than others.

The monster they faced off against was a weird one, to be exact. If nothing else, anyone seeing it would immediately think it's a manifestation of the legendary 9 tailed fox, since it was exactly that. Though, this beast had blackish fur allover its body, and it's body was fairly muscular. Its eyes shone with a clear scarlet gleam, and the teeth that seemed to not be containable in its mouth were profusely shown with dripping saliva, and the sharpness of it from looks did not pale in comparison to its claws that were at least ten inches long.

The fight against it was so much more difficult because of its tails which moved like they possessed a mind of their own.

Looking at the way things were going, Ezra couldn't really tell who was winning or losing, as he couldn't really see the fight in full.