Chapter 28: CH. 28 | Escort Mission

The clash between them instantly caught the attention of a lot of adventurers. They saw it and heard it, but Theo didn’t mind since he knew he wasn’t in the wrong here.

Slowly, the man and woman walked away from the table and left. The assassin was still groaning in pain, walking off while shooting Theo one last cold, resentful look.

Theo started to calm down, sat back at the table, and waited for the right moment to compete for a guild mission with the others.

"Thanks, Theo," Thalia said, her face flushed and a wide smile on her lips.

He turned to Thalia and nodded, his expression flat, then they waited while chatting about other things.

From the direction of the guild’s front desk, Theo saw a few guild staff coming out with papers for the day’s missions.

The staff pinned them up on the board, sorted by rank section. The other adventurers started to stand up, Theo included.

They stepped back behind the red tape stretched out by the guild staff, which kept anyone from grabbing a mission before the set time.

As time went on, the crowd in front of the board kept growing until Theo found himself packed shoulder to shoulder with everyone else.

The clock on the guild wall showed a quarter to seven, and the female staff member had already finished pinning up every mission by section.

"Listen up!" the woman said firmly, standing in front of the crowd of adventurers.

"We’ll open it at exactly seven. Anyone who grabs one before seven gets penalized."

"Understood?" she asked again, and the crowd answered all at once.

The woman stepped off to the side, out of the path the adventurers would soon be rushing through to grab their missions.

From where he stood, Theo couldn’t make out the mission details clearly, so his only option was to use his Foresight skill.

[Foresight Skill Activated]

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:00:10]

The skill activated again, and the world around him turned gray once more. Everyone froze in place, and only the shadowy images of their future selves kept moving.

Theo stepped past the red tape line, walked up to the mission board, and read through it quickly. He saw a wide range of F to E rank missions, things like herding livestock, cleaning out stables, and hunting forest game.

Beyond that, his attention locked onto the higher section, the D rank missions. One of them called for escorting an herb hunter out at Nador Hill.

Maybe... I should try grabbing a D rank mission.

I feel like I can pull it off.

Not only did the mission’s requirements seem fairly manageable for him, but Theo also noticed the reward was tempting for a rookie like himself: 200 exp, 15 contribution points, and 35 copper.

It ranked higher than E, but it also came with a chance to earn exp during the escort, unlike the F or E rank jobs, which leaned more toward community service work.

The duration ran out and the skill switched off. The world around him snapped back to normal, but Theo already had his target locked in for later.

All he had to do now was get ready to snatch that mission before any other adventurer could. Just a few minutes left before seven o’clock.

Theo glanced over at Thalia and Lily. Both girls were watching him with hopeful looks on their faces. Clearly, as their party leader, Theo couldn’t afford to let them down.

"Mission pickup opens in three... two... one!"

The red tape snapped and every adventurer took off running toward the guild’s mission board. Theo had the advantage of standing near the front, and his strong build let him hold his own against the others shoving in.

His hand shot forward and closed around the mission he’d been eyeing. He crumpled it into a small ball right away and shoved it into his pants pocket.

But since some of the other adventurers were even stronger, Theo got knocked back and shoved out of the crowd, landing hard on the guild floor.

"Oh, sorry about that, buddy!" the big, burly man said.

"It’s fine, don’t worry about it."

Thalia and Lily hurried over to Theo, clearly asking if he was okay after getting caught up in the crowd.

Theo smiled and reached into his pocket, handing over the crumpled mission paper he’d managed to grab.

Thalia took it, smoothed it out, and read it carefully. Her eyes went wide with shock, and so did Lily’s.

"The mission’s got a four day limit," Theo explained, "Once we register for it, we’ll head back to the apartment to let Riley know and get her meals sorted."

"I’ll ask Sara to watch Riley while we’re gone," Thalia said.

"Good idea. We’ll pay her something for it."

Theo got back on his feet with Thalia’s help. He straightened out his clothes and gear, then took the mission paper and tucked it into his shirt pocket.

"All right, let’s head over to—"

"Um..."

Theo’s words got cut off when he heard someone speaking to him. He turned around, and Thalia and Lily looked the same way.

They saw a woman in simple adventurer gear, carrying a wooden bow, approaching Theo’s party. Her face looked gloomy and worn down, and she kept her head lowered the whole time.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Theo asked.

"Um... I saw that you already have a guild mission, and there are only three of you."

"C-Could I possibly ask you to take me on as a member of your party?" the woman asked.

She had short hair and glasses, held her bow with both hands, and carried a quiver on her back with only five arrows in it.

Thalia didn’t say anything, but she looked over at Theo. Theo, meanwhile, wasn’t sure how to respond. It was true that their party was still missing an archer and an assassin, but he couldn’t just accept her on the spot.

The thing was, she’d come out of nowhere, asked to join his party, and didn’t exactly seem promising. Theo honestly had no idea how he was supposed to trust someone like her.

"What’s your name?" Theo asked.

"I... I’m Aya."

"All right, Aya," Theo said, "It’s not that we don’t want to take you on, it’s that we don’t trust you yet."

"You might be skilled with that bow of yours, but I’m a little wary right now, considering how much bad stuff has happened to us lately," Theo said.

"Oh... I see."

"I-If that’s your decision, I won’t push it."

"Sorry for bothering you."

Aya turned and walked off in another direction, head still down, moving awkwardly like a shy girl. Thalia let out a short sigh and looked back at Theo.

"Why don’t we just give her a shot?" Thalia asked.

"Too risky," Theo answered, "If she’s really meant to be part of our party, we’ll run into her again."

"For now, let’s just focus on this mission."