105: Teaching a Lesson

Everything was running smoothly within the hotel. For the next day or so, their first customers were more than satisfied, enough so that they decided to stay in for the next few days. It wasn't just to take advantage of the rare treatments the hotel offered, but to truly let them relax after their harrowing experience.

Kola, the leader, even asked for some sparring matches with Van and Ander, noticing their fights every so often and wishing to participate. That was when a special offer was made; rather than paying in coin, Nina asked Kola to pay with her insight. At the same time, she offered that Van would instead pay her for the sparring match, as it would be for his own benefit rather than the other way around.

Seeing no need to bargain such a deal, Kola took it. She fought against Van, using her mastery over wielding her hammer to truly push Van beyond his limits. Ander was also included, but against him, she did have to pay at least 20 copper for the exercise.

It was clear to Van that Nina intended on using this little market scheme not just to get some cash flow in, but to also teach Van more than just what Aidan and Ander can provide. It was also good for Kola as she got to stretch her legs, followed along with her comrades wishing for the same thing.

Nina soon promised that when Van got good enough, she would ask others for payment if they want to fight him, as fighting Ander against his talent is more than good enough experience for many adventurers striving to improve himself.

It wasn't lost on Aidan that fighting powerful foes, particularly with special techniques, is a luxury not many places offered. Some places like certain martial schools or academies would be the ones to do so, and that was after paying a decent amount for tuition, including a binding contract that restricts them from sharing what they learned to other people without proper guidance. Or in this case, it was to ensure that their secrets wouldn't be utilized against them.

Since they were just facing adventurers, it wouldn't be as impressive, but anyone who knew Ander and Van would know they’d be smart enough to take as many advantages as they could.

Of course, Aidan was also asked to spar, but he had to refuse on two fronts. First, Nina refused other people fighting Aidan for the sole purpose of keeping his abilities a secret, something that even money wouldn't deter her decision. Second, Aidan was busy doing exactly what he did that got them their first customers.

He searched far and wide across the second floor of the Leafair dungeon, finding more unfortunate adventurers to lead back towards their hotel. Upon doing so, he met a wide variety of people and saw some rather strange situations that would've filled up a novel at the rate he was going.

First of all, there were too many parties that were failing on this floor. He knew that the large floor was certainly enough to make them lost, but apparently the call for more space led some parties to believe more opportunities were to be had if they ventured forth.

In the end, it was their hubris that did them in. The second floor of the dungeon didn't have as many ambushers as in the first, but they had many monsters that took advantage of the large space by just doing the simplest tactic of them all–tearing down their prey with numbers.

He also recognized that these creatures were more intelligent than they let on. Compared to their party, they didn't face that many monsters, which concluded the fact that the monsters knew how dangerous their party, AKA Aidan, was and left them alone. Perhaps not as many, but the types of monsters and beasts that refused to face Aidan were the ones doing the numbers game tactic, which got his attention and interest.

He had to do a fair share of killing monsters that were close to wiping these parties out. Unfortunately, he was too late for a rare few that bit off more than they could chew, forcing Aidan to recover their bodies and burying them. He didn't have to do that, but he would feel a little sick if he hadn't, especially since he was also looting their corpses for their belongings to bring back.

He knew well enough not to mess with grudges of the dead. The least he could do was to be respectful in their presence, lest he would call for karma he really didn't want to have hanging over his head.

More and more people came into the hotel, increasing the number of people ranging from customers to servants as Aidan also brought in some extra help from Forontia to keep up with the work load. They were the people that owed a debt to Nina, though some were the kind folks that would gladly accept a paying job from their friends Van and Haley, including some of the guys that the Wise Guys knew of.

Money flowed as well as word of mouth as the days passed. The entire glade was becoming full of life as more people came in, some just finding the hotel on their own while others heard it from the passing adventurers that left the hotel after their short visit.

Of course, that included the Conductors, but apparently both Kola and Nina had a decent conversation with one another as, surprisingly enough, Kola was actually related to a small but well-known company that usually handled delivery services. She was more than impressed with Aidan's ability to teleport groups of people, and apparently Nina also had an eye on her company as she agreed to work with her on some projects. How Nina knew about her company, or why Kola was leading an adventurer party rather than leading the company, Aidan had no clue. Perhaps adventurers needed to do some extra jobs, or perhaps being an adventurer is that second job to keep up with their bills.

Reality sucks, even in this fantasy world.

And speaking of how reality sucks, Aidan was seeing one scene in particular that was so expectant, they might as well call themselves psychics for predicting the future.

He was up in the air using the air currents as usual while flying back to the hotel, and his senses picked up various souls rising in agitation and clear hostility. Considering that it was in the vicinity of the hotel, he rushed forward, though in that short moment, he veiled himself with Vanish to disappear from sight.

He looked down to see a group of people gathering in front of the hotel, making a mess of the once pristine empty glade full of flowers. What made it worse was the tension rising as he peered over at one group, with a singular man in the front making a show while the other group opposite of him listened to him.

It was none other than Van and Haley, with Haley standing behind Van as he looked at the man with a fiery look that could melt through steel. He knew that expression more than anyone else. Clearly, something was happening to his sister, and he wasn’t going to stand for it.

“Hey, come on, I was just messing around,” the man opposite of Van, a male adventurer from the looks of it, laughed about while his boys from behind joined in. However, there was that hint of agitation that Aidan picked up from his soul, showing frustration and some level of pride being bruised. “No need to have a stick up your ass about it.”

“I believe my sister told you to keep your hands off,” Van said respectfully, showing not a single iota of hesitation. “I’m making sure of that.”

“Van, really, it’s fine,” Haley insisted, pulling on her brother’s arm. It was clear for anyone around that she didn’t exactly want this scene to occur. Her eyes glanced about, embarrassment rolling off of her. “They’re just being gross.”

“Haley, they tried to touch you. I noticed how they kept their eye on you this whole time. It was starting to get on my nerves.”

“And you think she wasn’t asking for it?”

That comment from the man instantly made Aidan desire blood for compensation. The man shook his head, following along.

“Going around, prancing in that outfit of hers. Can you blame me for wanting a piece of that action?”

He commented so casually, it was as if he truly believed that was the case. His party certainly seemed to believe so, laughing along. Unfortunately for them, they were the only ones who thought so.

Because one needed to consider that Haley was a lot more popular than she let herself believe. Nina certainly took advantage of that by making her basically the face of good service, often sending her to a good number of people and being something of a concierge for them to speak to. She was great at socializing, and everyone relied on her to get the job done, either by doing it herself if she could or delegating it to others who can do the job better.

Her cute looks and bubbly personality was also a winner in everyone’s books, so when one asshole decided to outright slander her, it wasn’t surprising that their group received quite the glare from the crowd around them.

Some gripped their fists, others had their veins throb. Van wasn’t the only one looking like he was about to turn into a berserker as everyone immediately turned their hostile gazes towards the men-only group. The man in lead noticed the change, a frown showing up as if recognizing the situation.

“Oh come on, it’s not like I was the only one thinking like that! And you think you can treat me like that? I’m a fucking customer here. Both of you should show me some respect.”

“I believe respect is a two way street, sir,” Van said, uttering the last word like spewing venom. “We work for you, but you do not own us. You certainly don’t own my sister enough to put your filthy hands on her.”

“Oh, so you think you’re gonna do something about it?”

The man stepped up to Van, showing he had the height advantage over him by being at least a forehead taller. He looked down at Van, his jaw tightening and glaring daggers at him. Van, meanwhile, just looked up, back straight and expression solid.

“What a Level 42 bitch gonna do? Huh?”

The man shoved Van off, pushing him away. He clearly put every single point of Strength he had in it, but Van made an amazing effort of not falling over. Following that, Aidan scanned the POS for himself.

Scavenger, Level 51.

The dude had an upgraded Class, and a weird one at that. He never heard of a class like that, only expecting it to be some treasure hunting type of Class. Did it evolve from a Thief Class, or some Archer Class specialized in searching for items? Either way, it didn’t seem like the sort of Class to flaunt like that.

Still, no amount of interest in his Class was going to stop Aidan from stomping him to the dirt. But instead, he kept himself back. In fact, he watched with glee as Van kept his stance, even dusting off his black vest over a white shirt at the part where the man touched him.

“I’m afraid that’s your second strike, sir,” Van said, this time adding in a cool tone before facing him again. “If you continue this foolish behavior a third time… I’m afraid I might have to take action.”

It looked like everyone else picked up on Aidan’s mood as they all watched rather than do something about it. Suddenly, the man glanced about, and Aidan could tell that his soul was rising further in agitation and shame. It looked like he was realizing he was in a position where he was going to look bad no matter what he did.

He definitely didn’t like that. His nostrils flared as his eyes sharpened straight at Van. “You fucking shit!”

The man curled his fist tight and swung with everything he had at Van. The moment he swung, Van acted.

He swooped in, ducking below with ease and grabbed the offending arm with two of his own. He arched his back and let the man lean on him before pulling him over himself to slam right onto the ground beneath him. After a few seconds laying on the ground, Van picked up his leg and, with added effort, swung him far to the other side, nearly knocking the guy’s friends apart and creating some distance.

The crowd roared as they watched the fight going on, with Haley looking like she didn’t want anything to do with this, her soul practically begging for Aidan to come in to stop this. Aidan, unfortunately, ignored her plight as he watched the scene with bated breath, truly regretting not having a bucket of popcorn for the show.

Because what that guy probably didn’t know was that Van was taking full advantage of taking his spars seriously with every adventurer that faced him. Because in the end, nobody wanted to pass up getting paid while teaching him some lessons in combat.

And as the days passed, everyone started to pay instead of getting paid as Van was proving to be quite the sparring partner, even helping other adventurers improve themselves more than they realized. He was an excellent fighter that kept their edges honed and sharp for the time they left the hotel to continue scouring the dungeon floor, and perhaps further beyond. In return, Van received quite a few improvements himself, something that Aidan quickly noticed was becoming a boon for him and decided to keep looking for more people to send to the hotel. It got to the point where he was even giving Ander some trouble, even with his talent in lightning mana.

The man groaned as he picked himself up fast, recovering from his embarrassing fall. “You fucking piece of shit! I’ll beat your ass and that bitch beside you!”

“Try it, scum,” Van said simply, cricking his neck and waving his fingers in a motion to come at him. “I’ve been dying for some action anyways.”

There was no need for words after that. The scavenger grew feral and pulled out a long serrated knife, its point curved and sharp. He swooped in low, his body glowing in some kind of light that made clear he was using some form of boosting spell or ability.

Van didn’t even bother arming himself. Instead, he sidestepped the obvious lunge, but the scavenger reacted quickly and swung behind him, switching his knife into a south-paw. Van still didn’t let up, ducking his head and letting the knife barely graze his chin. The scavenger picked up his assault by launching a high-raise round house kick, forcing Van to jump back.

The scavenger didn’t relent. He closed in to reach a tighter space, obviously an infighter from the way he insisted on closing up. Yet despite that, Van diverted most of his attacks away by aiming for his arms and torso, pushing them away and aside to avoid the knife aiming for his vitals.

The scavenger swung his empty hand when his knife missed again, but in that moment, energy gathered around his hand and ephemeral claws formed around it. They had the size equal to the knife in his hand, and a nasty grin was plastered on his face, believing that he finally got the jump on Van.

Unfortunately for him, Van was prepared. At that moment, Van knew that the scavenger was going to try something after that last knife swing, being too wide for it to just be a simple loss of control during combat. Van’s hand was already within his spatial bag, pulling out his enchanted sword gifted by Aidan and blocking the claw strike.

The ephemeral claws struck against the metal, sparks flying out in response from the heavy blow. Van furrowed his brows before pushing forward, slamming his head right on top of the scavenger’s own. A headbutt that came out of nowhere forced the scavenger to slink back, his face struggling to keep up with the pain.

Van kicked forward with enough power to launch the scavenger a few feet away, landing on the ground like a ragdoll. Before the scavenger could recover with a growl, Van already had the tip of his sword aimed at his face the moment he pulled himself up.

“Don’t embarrass yourself any further,” Van stated, his chest heaving and sweat beginning to roll down his forehead. Even with all that, he kept a calm and steady tone. “I’m stopping this for your own good. Leave the premises and don’t show your face here again.”

Aidan could tell in an instant that rather than actually fighting for real, it was more like he was putting on a show. The exhaustion after dealing with an insistent level 51 was real, but the rest he could feel from his soul was putting off waves of concentration and effort into his words and behavior. Aidan could guess what was going on, and knew that his time would come, because as one would expect of an arrogant jackass, he wasn’t going to let this slide.

“Fucking trash level 42 upstart!” The man scowled, spitting out venomous intent with curling fists. “Break him!”

His words were intended for the guys behind Van, the dipshits laughing along with the guy’s words from earlier. They all picked up on it and, despite the hostile environment surrounding them, followed the scavenger’s call for action by pulling out their weapons.

The scavenger grinned widely as Van noticed the situation becoming worse. And before the entire situation became too much to bear for everyone involved as he felt the souls surrounding them rise up to a fever pitch, Aidan made the call.

He flew straight at them, landing on the ground between the crowd and summoning up a dust cloud from the ground in response. The cloud covered everything, catching everyone off guard including Van and Haley. Then crafted air swooped in to blow the dust cloud away, all the while conveniently shutting the Vanish spell down to reveal himself.

Everyone watched with stunned surprise at the appearance of Aidan, standing like a menace with a hard expression on his face. At least, he hoped it was hard enough to be considered intimidating. He tried practicing his facial expressions a few times whenever he got the chance, but his face didn’t exactly scream ‘terror on the streets’. Still, everyone around him knew who he was, and what he could do.

What he could do to anyone that dared make trouble for the Raining Treasures Hotel.

As he expected, Van let out a sigh as though the act was over, but not before putting away his sword and revealing the kind of expression a parent would make after dealing with a disappointing child tantrum.

“I tried to tell you. I tried to be peaceful. You can only blame yourselves for this.”

Aidan took in a moment to appreciate the silence following Van’s words. Everyone stayed perfectly still, including the rats that were preparing to make trouble.

“So, I was just having a nice time getting back home and I find something like this. Anyone mind telling me what’s going on?”

The moment Aidan said that, he instantly felt Haley’s eyes rolling so hard they could pop out of her skull. Her soul showed that she knew he was already there, just hiding away. Anger flared from within, and he pretty much expected her to complain later that if he was there already, he should’ve arrived earlier. He ignored that for now, not wishing to end this scene too early. The scavenger that started the mess picked himself up and pointed at Van.

“This prick started attacking me after making a false claim! I ain’t did nothing to deserve this! What’chu gonna do about this, huh?”

Aidan had to admit that the man had quite the balls to state his own version of things, no matter how twisted it was. The others around him sneered and scowled at the man, and some even called him out for it with jeers.

Aidan couldn’t help but laugh at this. “Oh, man. Now that’s some grade-A dumbassity right there. How you’re still alive after all this time must be some kind of miracle.”

“What?”

Aidan stepped forward, lifting his hand and began casting his Craft spell. The earth became alive as tendrils of dirt coiled around the man’s wrists and pulled him away, launching him straight at his party that stood by helplessly when Aidan arrived. The man gasped and groaned, picking himself up quickly before Aidan turned around, facing the group.

Aidan snapped his fingers, then the earth swallowed the man whole, trapping him into a spherical dome of earth. They could hear the man scream inside, lashing out curses and threats as he kept punching the inside of the dome.

“Aidan, please don’t do this,” Haley called out, stepping by his side and begging with her eyes. Van, however, just crossed his arms, knowing exactly what was going to happen with a raised smile.

“Sorry, Haley. But nobody talks shit about my friends.”

Aidan said, his voice turning lower as he glared at the dome.

“Nobody.”

He snapped his fingers again.

Spikes grew out of the dome, and unadulterated screams flowed out from the inside. Everyone else widened in shock or covered their mouths in horror as they watched the man possibly get impaled right in front of them. But that wasn’t the end of it. With a sickening grin, Aidan twisted his hand around, and the spikes that stuck out soon began to spin around the dome.

More screams followed. Agonizing, terrifying, and bordering on traumatizing those around them as the spikes spun around the dome, becoming a whir to their eyes as the screams continued. Blood soaked the ground beneath the dome, making everyone step back, including the scavenger’s so-called friends who looked on, their faces palling the more they listened to their friend’s scream.

In truth, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked on the outside. Honestly, it was still pretty bad, but if the inside of the dome looked anything like the outside of it, nobody would’ve come out of it alive.

The man would get out of this alive. He would just wish he wasn’t. One had to remember that Aidan did have a title for this kind of thing, and if this show was to put any consideration, it was that nobody messes with the Raining Treasures Hotel or any one of Nina’s staff members.

Because they would end up the same way as the poor man whose blood was staining the once peaceful green grass a disgusting red.