Ank

The Guild Master had called us to finally give us our adventurers’ identities, but once my sister and I reached his office, we found out that we hadn’t been the only ones to be called out: that [Party] of three we saw at the second floor was already waiting inside.

“Oh, sorry”, I said, exiting the room. We’ve been inside a jungle for so long, that I even forgot basics etiquette, and didn’t knock on the door.

“No, it’s perfect timing, actually”, the Guild master got up from behind his desk, and presented us, twins, one of the two couches facing each other. “Please, take a seat”, as we did as instructed, he turned to the other three, and asked: “Please, you too.”

As the other [Party] sat before us, I awkwardly looked away from them. After all, my sister and I had just overdone at our fight with the other adventurers; Taffy warned us before, but that city contained just the weakest of the adventurers, and we went 100% on them…

“I’m sorry, Ank, Hunah, I was just explaining the [Sunight Party] here about a proposal I had for them”, the Guild Master explained, and I nodded to the other adventurers, who replied in the same awkward way. “And, well… Actually this propose has also to do with you two.”

“A quest?”, Hunah asked.

“Yes, but there’s more to it”, the old tree-mad laughed, playfully. “I believe your mother has explained the minimum amount of members an adventuring [Party] needs to be, right?”

“Ah~ wait”, I called. “Taffy isn’t our mother. We just met a year ago, and she helped us out with some things… just to let it clear”, I explained. And, surprisingly, that seemed to shock the Guild Master, who stood, eyes widened, frozen in place for a solid minute.

“Darn… me… a single year?”, the old tree-man muttered, before shaking his head, and resuming with the previous topic. “Anyway, you know the rule, right?”

“Yeah, but Taffy said we could make it do with just the two of us?”, Hunah asked back.

“Well, actually, I already broke another rule by immediately accepting you two straight into the 90^th rank, and that’s what caused the previous incident to begin with. So, though I’d like to allow the two of you to work just by yourself, I fear that, if I do so, I will end up causing another, and perhaps even bigger ruckus… This is where the [Sunight Party] here enters.”

“Hey”, a blue-haired human seated between the other two adventurers waved at us, twins.

“Hey…” I replied.

“You see, they are one of our best adventurers, and have precisely 2 vacant spots in their [Party], and I suggested them to accept you two in.”

“Uh, no offense, but…”, I exchanged a glance with Hunah, and later with the [Sunight Party], before continuing: “We need to get a lot stronger. We appreciate the offer, but we can't spare any more time killing low leveled monsters…”

“No offense taken”, the blue-haired guy from before, who, I assumed, was the [Party] leader replied, shaking his hands and smiling.

On the other hand, I heard his teammates whispering:

“Why do they need to get even stronger? Aren’t they strong enough already?!”

“They are, and I don’t know why they need to level up even more…!”

“And I agree with you, Ank”, the Guild Master replied from behind his desk, nodding, seriously. “The guild is always in need of strong adventurers. The people are always in need of strong adventurers” With the same serious look on his face, he added: “And this is why I am suggesting this union. Ank, why did you become a summoner?”

“To kill creatures individually stronger than me.”

“Exactly. This is the same reason for why the [Party] system exists: if you had five people [Level: 100] in your [Party], you’d be able to fight foes of [Level: 166]”

I frowned, thinking about it. It was hard to go against monster 10, 20 [Levels] above ours, but more than 60 [Levels]? Maybe we could get stronger even faster if we had this [Party]…

I turned, filled with expectation, to the other [Party], but before I could ask anything, they replied:

“We’re just [Level: 15] each”, the leader gave me an apologetic smile.

“Hahaha!”, the Guild Master laughed out loud. “Of course, any [Party] that managed to survive long enough so each member reached [Level: 100], would already have all of its slots filled up”, he explained. “Besides, even if the two of you have the [Levels], you’d end up being just a burden, for, correct me if I’m wrong, you have no experience in fighting in a group, right?”

“Well, yes, it has been just the two of us since the beginning of our monster-hunting missions…”, I started to see where the 10^th Guild Master was going.

“Wow…”, the other two [Sunight Party] members apart from the leader were impressed.

Scratching my nape, blushing just slightly, I thought: fuck, I really should go back to leveling up, or I could actually become as spoiled as the adventurers thought I was. I was getting used to all the wow my sister and I were causing.

“Indeed, darn me if this isn’t impressive, but, as you two may have noticed already, you’re wasting potential by not teaming up. And, I thought about a solution for this: you see, the [Sunight Party] here may be way under-leveled when compared to you two, but this can be, actually, a good thing. If you accept entering their [Party], you can learn proper teamwork, while they can gain [Levels] more safely! Then, in no time I’m sure, you all will have the power to complete… whatever objective you have in mind.”

I exchanged a glance with the expectant [Party] leader, suspiciously, before asking back the 10^th Guild Master:

“Be honest now: what are you offering them?”

I admitted it: I was just an angry farm boy with little experience with the outside world; and even this little experience was a little rusted after an entire year in the middle of nowhere. But, in a world with monsters and bloodthirsty [Gods] everywhere, sentient life already threatened to complete extinction multiple times in the past, even country bumpkins like me were taught to be at least a little wary… Yeah, it absolutely had nothing to do with me being lazy, and projecting the idea that it’s not worthy to do something as tiresome as changing your entire [Party] dynamics unless there was significant to gain with it onto others.

“Darn me, as expected from lady Taffy’s kids…”, the old tree-man smiled, nodding and combing his moss beard with his bark-covered fingers. “You’re right: to the [Sunight Party], I offered an early ranking up quest for them all at once, if they accepted you two in; a rare offer, once its usually an individual quest, so substitution may happen easier in case of death happening within a [Party]”, after a minute of silence, Hunah and I staring at him, the 10^th Guild Master added: “Th- That’s really all.”

I thought about it for an instant: even if those 3 got as strong as us, could we convince them to go against the [Gods] themselves? Besides, the time we would spend helping them, we could be leveling up ourselves… On the other hand, even if their [Levels] were lower, they definitely had more experience as adventurers, and could give the two of us a lot of tips, and, most importantly, they had a [Healer], when Taffy told us she wouldn’t treat us anymore.

I looked at Hunah, and we both nodded, looking serious, before replying:

“Okay, we will give this all a try.”