Chapter 425: Visiting the Mercenary Guild

After making his way down one of the wider streets close to the center of the hub city Joshua was able to find a rather large guild hall that looked extremely busy in comparison to all of the other guild buildings in the city. The guild he was currently standing in front of was the Mercenary Guild and was a guild that had gained a lot popularity over the past year. Unlike a lot of guilds the mercenary guild kind of worked as a hub for small groups and solo explorers that decided to get their names out there by doing work through the Mercenary Guild. With this set up even though the guild technically only had a thousand members working in it, the guild was able to create jobs for thousands of mercenaries that weren't officially members of the guild.

This set up was one of the main reasons the Mercenary Guild was busy at all times of day. There were the people that regularly worked at the guild from day to day that ranged from actual explorers to support members that worked within the guild, there were the solo adventurers that considered themselves mercenaries that came to the place looking for jobs they could do to earn a living, and lastly there were the people that came to post jobs and opportunities for those explorers to take. It was an interesting business set up that caused the place to be lively at all times.

Joshua had to wait a bit to get inside the place with the large crowd and the wait was even longer since he didn't have a membership with the guild. It took half an hour of waiting in line for him to get inside and finally talk to someone that could help do what he had come there for in the first place. The man standing behind the counter wasn't a robot since this wasn't a system owned establishment. Instead he was a support class citizen that was employed by the Mercenary Guild. Even so he fit the image of what you would expect from a mercenary. A big bearded guy with a ton of scars and a fierce scowl that would make any rookie explorer feel nervous.

"What can I help you with?" The receptionist said the moment Joshua stepped up to the counter. "You're a new face around here so if you need me to explain anything feel free to ask. Just make sure you don't make any trouble for anyone else here."

"Since it is my first time here I was hoping for a run down on how things worked before I moved on to what I came here for. Wouldn't want to mess things up." Joshua said with a small smile. The receptionist nodded in understanding and seemed to be scrutinizing Joshua even more as if his face and physique was familiar. At the moment Joshua had gained some popularity do to his overall explorer ranking along with his undefeated streak in the battle arena. Although Joshua tried not to stand out by hiding his name and level most of the time while walking around the hub city, his looks were getting more and more striking the longer he bonded with his spirit beast. Eventually he'd start getting recognized right away if it kept up.

"No problem. Well in a broad sense there are three main reasons why people come and visit the Mercenary Guild. They come to mingle and talk with other solo explorers, they come to set up a mission for a mercenary group to take on the mission board, or they come to look for missions to take themselves. Those are the most basic avenues you can take when it comes to getting involved with any business involving the Mercenary Guild. Of course only small parties or solo explorers are allowed to take on any missions put up through the Mercenary Guild, but anyone can come to mingle or put up a mission." The receptionist said while pointing everything out one by one that he spoke about around the guild.

"Why is that? Why are only solo explorers and small parties allowed to take on missions?" Joshua asked curiously. He had an idea, but he wanted to make sure he knew exactly how the Mercenary Guild was trying to depict itself when it came to both the citizens of the hub city and all of the guilds in it.

"We don't want to show any favoritism to any guilds so we don't allow guilds to take on missions brought to the mercenary guild. Solo explorers aren't involved with guilds so that makes things much easier on us."

"What happens if there's a mission posted that requires more explorers than the small party that first tries to sign up for it. I can't imagine you'd send them out in such a dangerous situation that will probably only end up annoying the person that put up the mission in the first place." Joshua said a bit puzzled. Since the Mercenary Guild was mostly a large group of solo explorers he wondered how well they could actually work with each other on short notice. Guilds spent plenty of time training their members to be good at working together in big moments that solo explorers wouldn't be used to.

"Usually the mission isn't put into action until the quota of members is met. Plus when a mission is put up there are two ways to search for mercenaries that you want to take on the mission." The receptionist paused to think of the best way to phrase things. It was clear to Joshua that the receptionist was starting to see that Joshua might be a big customer for the guild just based off of how many different questions he was asking that were all based on setting up missions. "You can either request a specific mercenary for the job, or set up base lines for the type of mercenaries you want coming on the mission."

"Base lines?"

"What type of jobs you want the explorers to have that are coming on the mission, what level range they should be in if they want to take on the mission, and sometimes things like spirit beast types can be put in the base line. Though keep in mind the more requirements you put up the more expensive the mission will be through the guild and the less people that will be interested in going through with the mission you post. A lot of people like their privacy after all." The receptionist said with a shrug.

"Well I came here to hire a specific mercenary group for the mission that I have in mind so I guess I'd fall under the first request type." Joshua said with a small smile. "I was hoping you could set up a mission for Vince and the rest of his group. Say that Joshua came by to talk."

"Vince huh. You wouldn't happened to be the same Joshua that's been causing a ruckus in the battle arena would you? The guild leader of the Fenrir Guild?" The receptionist asked with a slight brightening in his eyes. Joshua gave a simple nod in return and the receptionist started to grin in return. "Vince seems to be getting lucky of late with the job offers. You don't have to wait around to talk to him though, he's here at the moment with his girls. He's up on the second floor in one of the private rooms go on up and talk it out. He told us you might come by at some point."

Joshua just nodded before heading over to the stairs and making his way up to the second floor. Although the first floor was incredibly crowded the second floor was a bit more bearable with most people being inside their own rooms instead of roaming the hall ways. Vince's room was quite easy to find since it was one of the two bigger rooms that seemed a bit more expensive than the others. Joshua imagined that only the highest level mercenaries would be given the opportunity to use such rooms whether it was because of how much they cost or a certain status set up that was put in place by the guild itself. Either way it made things easier for Joshua in finding his target.

When Joshua got close to the room he was met with an illusion that he was able to see right away just from the way it stood out in comparison to the rest of the guild building. It made the door to the room look like some sort of royal chamber of sorts instead of like all of the other doors even when it came to doors to similar sized rooms. Joshua figured that Vince could use his illusions inside the hub city without any consequences as long as they didn't cause any actual harm. It gave the care free man another advantage that Joshua wasn't expecting.

Joshua nocked on the door even if it was an illusion since he was certain that the actual door was still there. Sure enough his hand knocked against the door and soon after the illusion dropped as if it was never there in the first place. "Well come on in big man. I was expecting you to pay a visit eventually, just not so soon." A playful voice came from beyond the door that Joshua recognized right away.

"Well I wasn't exactly expecting you to already be here, but that just makes things easier for me." Joshua replied as he entered the room only to see Vince chilling out on a couch while watching some kind of screen displaying one of the news networks. Vince wasn't alone however as his four team mates were there as well, but they seemed more interested in their own conversation while they ate some food. "How come you're sitting on your own? Under some kind of punishment or something?"

"Kind of. They're all a little pissed at me for flirting with our last client. We just got back from a mission earlier so I cut loose a little too much for my own good." Vince said with a chuckle. "Anyways I'm surprised that you came so soon though I'm glad that you came to the mercenary guild if you were trying to set something up with our group. They don't tend to like it when members of the guild try to get their own missions without going through the guild first."

Joshua just shrugged at this before taking a seat across from Vince. "Well it gave me an opportunity to see how the guild was run in the first place. Haven't really had any reason to work with the Mercenary Guild in the past. It's an interesting set up, although I wonder how it works from your side of things."

"What, thinking about becoming a mercenary in the future and flying solo?" Vince said with a grin as he leaned forward to grab a few chips from the platter in front of him.

"Not a chance in hell, but it's always good to know just in case things change."

"The only difference from our perspective is the fact that the mission are ranked from F to S level and the reward usually reflects that. Other than that it is pretty much the exact same explanation that the receptionist gave you." Vince said before taking a more serious approach to the remainder of the conversation. "Alright now let's get down to business. What kind of mission do you have for us?"