The bounties on the three Orc Goblins and the White-Haired Goblin alone totaled an impressive twenty-three gold coins.
Then there were more than a dozen ordinary goblins.
On top of that was the association's extra twenty-gold bonus.
It truly was a reward hard to resist...
Besides, slaying this many monsters should smoothly push him from level 5 to level 6, taking him another step closer to becoming a low-rank mage.
"Alright, let's see if we can find suitable teammates first," Zelier agreed for the time being.
Before long, Vallis and Gray arrived at the association as well.
After reading through the commission sheet, Gray spoke in a tone tinged with regret.
"Whoa... Rhode's party. I knew them, drank with them, even. I really didn't expect this... If I remember right, their party had four people too, didn't they?"
"They must have underestimated their enemy. They should have brought more people."
Vallis shook his head. "Goblins are cunning creatures."
Looking around, Zelier began scanning the hall for potential new teammates.
Yet as he looked back and forth, hardly anyone caught his eye.
They were all ordinary adventurers who didn't look particularly reliable, and needless to say, most of their ranks were low-rank.
After all, this was merely a town-level branch. Without any particularly massive monster gathering grounds or ancient ruins nearby, top-tier experts were naturally scarce.
Suddenly, Zelier spotted a conspicuous figure in the crowd—the half-orc Gak!
As usual, he carried a broadaxe on his back, his burly frame standing out sharply.
"Hey! Gak!"
Zelier waved at Gak to catch his attention.
"Over here!"
Hearing someone call his name, Gak turned his head expressionlessly.
Recognizing Zelier, the look on his face softened slightly.
"Hey, Zelier."
Gak easily parted the crowd and walked over. "What is it?"
"Interested in teaming up?" Zelier tilted his head toward the commission notice.
After studying it carefully, Gak narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment, then rumbled in a gruff voice,
"I'm fine with it, but how many people are in your party right now?"
"Four. Counting you, that's five."
Zelier gave a brief introduction.
"Our leader is Marcus, a low-rank warrior on the frontline. We've got Gray, a swordsman and also a low-rank warrior, and then Vallis, a mid-rank ranger."
The others nodded politely to Gak.
"A mage... and a mid-rank ranger..."
Gak murmured thoughtfully, "Sounds pretty good. Count me in."
"Big guy, what's your class?" Marcus asked.
Marcus was over one hundred and ninety centimeters tall, yet standing before Gak, he still appeared somewhat diminutive.
"You should be able to tell just by looking, shouldn't you? I bet he's a mage," Gray joked with a grin.
"Name's Gak, warrior."
Gak grinned broadly as well. "A low-rank warrior, but I can already use a bit of battle aura. There are three Orc Goblins this time, which will put heavy pressure on holding the line. Marcus, you won't be able to hold them off alone on the frontline. I can help you."
"Welcome aboard." Marcus clapped Gak on the arm.
Marcus was quite pleased with Gak joining them.
He had originally wanted to find another reliable warrior to help him hold the front line anyway; relying on him alone with a shield simply wasn't realistic.
Half-orcs naturally enjoyed substantial physical advantages.
Moreover, orc blood was ferocious. Once battle began, they never easily retreated, meaning there was no need to worry about him turning tail if the party fell into dire straits.
"That makes five of us... but just to be safe, should we find one more?"
Zelier counted on his fingers. "Another warrior, or a ranger?"
"Not considering an assassin?"
A slightly lazy voice suddenly chimed in right by their ears.
The group looked toward the sound.
The speaker was a woman.
She was tall and slender, her upper body draped entirely in a short hooded robe, while her lower half revealed long, shapely legs clad in tight leather pants.
Pulling down her hood, she revealed her face.
Her skin was fair, her features delicate, and her lips well-defined, curving upward at a slight angle.
Much like a cat, she seemed languid yet graceful.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Shir, a mid-rank assassin."
She smiled. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but if you're looking for a teammate, perhaps you could consider me?"
Shir—a crisp, sharp name, just like her appearance, as clean and simple as a straight blade.
Seeming to notice Zelier's gaze, Shir tilted her head slightly, and their eyes met.
"Hello there, Zelier," Shir said with a soft smile.
"How do you know my name...?"
"Because I've had my eye on you for quite some time." The upward curve of Shir's lips grew even more amused.
A surge of tension welled up inside Zelier for no clear reason.
Having lived in this world for so long after crossing over, he had heard his fair share of rumors.
An assassin was a mage's strictest father.
Members of this class rarely showed up in the Adventurers' Association, because compared to fighting monsters, they favored contracts targeting people.
If combat were divided into PvE and PvP, assassins were players who specialized purely in PvP.
All the arts they honed were less about dealing with monsters and more about killing humans; even the properties of their battle aura reflected this.
An assassin's battle aura typically possessed special traits like Presence Concealment, Rapid Movement, and Stealth—covert and swift, making them virtually impossible to defend against.
Just as Shir had stood silently beside them listening to their entire conversation, not a single member of the party had noticed her.
Back when the assassin class was at its height, they had even founded an Assassins' Guild.
Within that guild, countless shady assassination contracts were openly displayed on the counter, waiting for the right hands to carry them out.
Yet aside from certain high-bounty figures, the targets assassins most easily went after were, of course, mages.
Rich in coin and fragile in health, an assassin could slip in unseen and strike them down in a single critical blow. No matter how powerful a mage's spells might be, they were helpless against such an ambush.
However, this blatant class targeting swiftly drew the ire of the Mages' Guild.
Out in the open, the Mages' Guild was an absolute colossus compared to the Assassins' Guild.
Spanning multiple nations and sitting atop boundless resources and wealth, the mages were hardly going to tolerate having their people hunted so brazenly without taking offense.
Consequently, the Mages' Guild initiated severe crackdowns, and various kingdoms followed suit, enacting laws one after another.
The Assassins' Guild soon vanished from public view, forced underground. Though their organizational framework remained intact, their scale was a shadow of what it once was.
"You want to... join our party?" Marcus asked with some hesitation.
"Oh, there haven't been many new contracts in the guild lately, so I came out to pick up some freelance work," Shir said, waving her hand dismissively. "Don't worry, I take my work very seriously. I definitely won't drag you down."
Chapter 41