Chapter 32: The Commission
The morning air still carried a chill, but the Adventurers’ Guild was already roaring with noise.
All kinds of smells filled the not-so-spacious hall.
When Chenxi, Hongxu, and Lina pushed the door open and entered, the clamor faltered for a moment.
A great many eyes swept toward them in unison, then quickly moved away as everyone returned to their own business.
Hongxu followed half a step behind Chenxi, the massive double-bladed axe strapped to her back. Even in the dim light, her cherry-pink skin was rather eye-catching.
Her lips were pressed together, and her gaze was lowered.
Normally, the person she looked at was always Chenxi. But today... her eyes kept drifting toward Lina.
As for Lina, she habitually lagged one step behind, holding her staff with a calm expression.
That was simply the kind of person she was. Chenxi, on the other hand, looked serious on the outside, while inwardly he was... ahem.
Ignoring all those gazes, Chenxi walked straight to the counter.
Old Jack had his head lowered, his brows tightly knitted together. When he heard the footsteps and looked up, his clouded eyes brightened.
“Well now, it is you, lad. And Miss Hongxu too.”
A trace of delight entered Old Jack’s voice. His gaze paused briefly on Lina, but he did not ask any questions.
“Welcome. Are you here to take a job today, or to sell materials?”
“To take a job.”
Chenxi’s voice was flat. There was no need to cultivate too warm a relationship with someone he was not close to.
“Something below the seventh floor, or something with high returns.”
He added that as his gaze swept over the wall behind the counter, which was covered in wooden job plaques.
Old Jack set down the rag and, out of habit, pushed up the glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose.
“There are a few below the seventh floor. As for high returns...”
He paused, seeming to think something over. Then he leaned forward slightly, lowered his voice, and a rather unusual look appeared in his eyes.
“Chenxi, could you come to the back with me for a moment?”
That made Hongxu lift her head slightly and glance at Old Jack.
Chenxi, however, showed no particular reaction. He merely nodded.
“All right.”
He signaled for Hongxu and Lina to wait where they were, then followed Old Jack around the counter and into the storage room piled high with miscellaneous goods.
...
Old Jack carefully pulled the door shut behind them, cutting off the noise outside.
The light in the storage room was even dimmer, with only a faint gleam filtering in through a small vent window.
Old Jack rubbed his hands together, his face showing a mixture of awkwardness and excitement.
“There is a commission. It was not officially posted through the Guild... the client came directly to me.”
He swallowed and said seriously, “It is an escort job.”
Chenxi’s brows drew together almost imperceptibly.
An escort job?
Troublesome. He did not want it.
He hated wasting time protecting strangers, especially employers with endless petty demands.
The risk and reward usually did not match. It was far more straightforward to hunt in the Dungeon.
So, reject it.
Just as he was about to refuse, Old Jack seemed to read his thoughts and hurriedly added, “The pay... is extremely high.
The client offered two hundred gold coins.
The deposit alone is fifty.”
Two hundred gold coins?!
Chenxi’s eyes widened slightly.
What sort of status did this person have, to spend two hundred gold just to hire an escort?
That number truly exceeded expectations.
A dangerous, high-paying hunt like the Bone-Eroding Venom Spider nest, together with the sale of materials, had only brought in sixty or seventy gold at most.
Normally speaking, unless one went down to the twelfth floor, it was impossible to make a steady ten gold a day.
Otherwise, on the ninth floor without a commission, a day’s earnings were only around five to ten gold.
And that was only with good luck, if they happened to run into a beast pack. The lower the Dungeon went, the larger it became.
Two hundred gold was enough to support their team’s expenses for quite a long time. It would allow them to buy better potions for supplies and even leave them with enough to start considering Liya’s treatment.
This was a long-term quest. The first stage was almost complete, and later on, her leg would definitely need treatment.
Suppressing those complicated thoughts, Chenxi continued asking, “Destination?
Distance? Time?”
The pay was very high, but he would not let that enormous sum blind him.
If two hundred gold meant escorting someone all the way to a place like the Frozen Desert or the Forest of the Dead, some dangerous place that would take an enormous amount of time, then he would refuse immediately.
An embarrassed expression appeared on Old Jack’s face. He coughed lightly.
“As for the destination... the client only said it was a small town in the north.
The exact place and timing will have to be discussed in person.
The client... is rather strange.”
He spread his hands. “I am only acting as the middleman. As for the specifics, you will need to speak to her directly.
She is still in town.”
Thinking back to the impression that little girl had left on him...
Yes, describing her as strange was not inaccurate at all.
The north?
That was far too vague a range.
Chenxi’s thoughts raced.
The worst thing about escort jobs was unclear information.
If the client refused to explain things clearly, it meant trouble was much more likely.
Two hundred gold was no small amount. If the client was willing to pay that price, then either she was foolish and rich, or this job itself was extremely dangerous, or... there was something wrong with the client herself.
But two hundred gold really was a great deal.
Chenxi lightly rubbed his thumb against his forefinger.
His and Hongxu’s strength was no longer what it had once been, and Lina’s addition had given the team crucial support abilities.
As long as they were not facing an army outright, or some supreme expert, he was confident he could still maneuver.
The key was to learn the details first.
At the very least, he needed to meet the client.
“I understand.”
Chenxi nodded and made his decision.
“Arrange a time for me.
The sooner the better.
I will discuss the details with my teammates.”
Old Jack visibly relaxed, and the wrinkles on his face loosened.
“Good, good!
I will contact her at once! I will let you know the moment I hear anything!”
He seemed afraid Chenxi might change his mind.
If this commission went through, Old Jack himself would make quite a handsome profit from it.
Chenxi said nothing more. He turned, pushed open the storage-room door, and walked out.
...
Hongxu and Lina were still standing in front of the counter.
Hongxu had her head tilted slightly to one side, secretly looking at Lina, though from time to time her gaze also flicked toward the storage-room door.
“Lina.”
“What is it, Senior Hongxu?”
“You know, at night I sleep holding the boss in my arms.”
Lina looked at the proud expression on Hongxu’s face, and an unreadable glimmer passed through her eyes.
“I see. I did not expect Senior Hongxu to be so childlike that she needs the captain to look after her.”
“Hm? No, no, that is not what I meant! What I meant is that the boss and I are very close!”
Lina tilted her head and looked at Hongxu.
“Senior Hongxu is probably treated like a child by the captain, is she not? After all, you need him to look after you in everything.
Senior Hongxu may have a very fine figure, but if you are always troubling the captain with everything, then the captain will naturally start treating you like a child.”
Lina withdrew her gaze.
“Senior Hongxu can think about it. Does the captain not always tell you what to do? And even when a girl with Senior Hongxu’s figure hugs him, he still does not do anything improper.”
Hearing Lina’s words, Hongxu was stunned.
Bad, bad!
It really does seem that way!
“Lina, you have to save me! I do not want the boss to treat me like a child!”
After turning away, the corners of Lina’s lips lifted almost imperceptibly.
“I will help you, Senior Hongxu. Just listen to me.”
“Lina, you really are a wonderful person!”
Hongxu looked at Lina with tears shimmering in her eyes.
At that moment, Chenxi came back out as well.
The instant she saw him, Lina straightened slightly.
Her gaze turned exceedingly gentle.
Hongxu, meanwhile, strode right over without any restraint at all.
Chenxi walked over to the two of them.
“We are leaving. Back home.”
There would be no going into the Dungeon today. They needed to go back and discuss matters first.
If they were really going, then what would happen at home?
One person would definitely have to stay behind, since Liya needed someone to look after her.
If it turned out to be a single-person commission, then he would go alone.
“All right.”
Hongxu answered at once and obediently followed.
Lina hugged her staff and went after them as well.
...
Once they stepped out of the Guild doors, Hongxu finally let out a sigh of relief.
“We are finally out. The smell in there was truly bizarre!”
The morning sunlight spilled across the street, and the air immediately felt much fresher.
The moment there was no one nearby, Hongxu’s chatterbox nature emerged again.
“Boss, boss! Why did old man Jack drag you inside so mysteriously?
Was it some good job?
Are we going to fight even stronger monsters again?
The seventh floor? Or the eighth?
Or... the ninth?”
Her voice was filled with obvious excitement.
Combat—how wonderful!
Lina smiled as she watched the scene before her, so she was not worried at all.
“It is not a hunting job.”
Chenxi cut off Hongxu’s torrent of words.
Hongxu truly was far too talkative.
“Eh?”
Hongxu looked at Chenxi in confusion.
“We are not going into the Dungeon?
Then what are we doing?
Tying people up and delivering goods again?
That is so dull!”
Chenxi once again pushed away Hongxu’s face as she leaned too close. Earlier there had been a one-gold escort job, and he had spent an hour completing it with her.
Her tone was full of disappointment.
“Delivering goods only earns a few copper coins. It is a waste of time.”
“It is an escort.”
Chenxi spoke while walking, his gaze sweeping over the shops on both sides of the street.
“Escorting the client.”
“Es... escorting?”
Hongxu sighed, still visibly uninterested.
“You mean the sort of thing where we trail along behind someone, walking at a snail’s pace, while keeping watch for petty thieves that might pop out of nowhere?
Like... acting as guards for merchants?”
In her mind, she pictured the caravan guards she had seen before. To her, that was the most boring kind of work imaginable.
“I would rather go work the forge for the blacksmith!”
Walking behind them, Lina listened to their conversation with no particular expression on her face.
An escort?
She had done a few of those back when she was with the adventurer party before the Bedrock Adventurer Party. The clients were usually picky and troublesome, and all kinds of accidents could happen on the road... It was far more exhausting than hunting.
Still, since it was the captain’s decision...
“The pay is two hundred gold.”
Chenxi casually dropped the crucial piece of information.
“Oh. Two hundred... two hundred gold?!”
Dull?
Children, I have discovered that I like dull work!
“If it is two hundred gold, then there is no problem at all!”
Lina looked at Hongxu.
What a swift change of attitude.