Chapter 153: Fighters Guild
Lake was pretty sure there was a separate counter inside for people returning to receive their rewards so he didn't line up behind the people outside and went inside. Walking over to an empty counter, Lake asked. "Is this the line to turn in missions?" Lake could see the man behind the counter eyeing the bloody bundle in his hand as they answered. "Yes, come with me."
Following him into a back room the man asked "Which mission are you here to claim?" as soon as the door closed behind them. "Um, the Black Cave bandits." The man nodded and said. "I'll be right back. I have to get the scout that found their base to confirm the identity of the head. I can also get those swords to the appraiser if you'd like."
Lake nodded and handed the two swords he had brought back with him to sell then asked. "Does the guild buy jewelry as well?"
"I can have it sold for you if you wish but you might have to wait a few days for the money to be ready. A lot of people just prefer to sell stuff that the guild doesn't buy themselves. There's a good place in town I would recommend if you don't want to wait."
"No, I'm fine with the wait." Lake planned to leave for another mission as soon as possible so he didn't feel like stopping at another shop if he didn't have to and he needed to unload himself to make more room in his bags. Pulling everything out that he was sure would count as jewelry which included the jeweled knife Lake handed the sizable ball off to the man.
When the man left the room Lake set the head down on a nearby table that had clearly seen its fair share of gore and sat down to wait. A few minutes later the man returned with a new person Lake assumed to be the scout and was expecting for them to ask to see the head so he stood to unwrap the head to hear. "Sir, I'm sorry to inform you that the mission you are here to claim has already been completed."
"What do you mean?" Lake wasn't stupid so he understood what they were saying. He just wanted more information so he could try and prove he had done what was required of him to receive his money. "About an hour before you arrived we paid the bounty to someone who had the head of the leader of the black cave bandits."
The scout who had yet to say anything chipped in at this moment with. "I would like to see the head you brought to see if I recognize it, if I do I'll ask some questions to get to the bottom of what has happened for you." Lake nodded and led the scout over to the head. Lake let them take it from there because he didn't want to touch it if he didn't have to.
After the scout looked at the head for a while he said. "It's definitely one of the Black Cave bandits but not the leader. Ok first question: were you alone when you went to kill the bandits?" Lake nodded. "So you didn't have anyone with you on the hunt."
"No, I was alone the whole time." Lake wondered if they were asking him this to see if there were others that could back him up on his story, but sadly for him there were not. He guessed they could have also been asking to see if there had been a mix-up between he and his friends on which head they should bring in but he thought that was unlikely and he was now part of an investigation.
He hoped the investigation was for him to get what he was owed but there was a chance he was being investigated for head fraud now. "Ok, and when did you accept this mission to kill the Black Cave bandits?"
"Probably less than four hours ago." Lake didn't like how this made him sound because he doubted that was long enough for them to believe he had killed 15 people but the fact he had a head hopefully backed up his claims of him being the killer. "Ok and how many did you kill in that time?"
"15."
"And the mission was for 17, so you just thought 2 of them had been killed before you got there?" Lake nodded and said. "Yes, I was told I just needed to bring the leader's head and to not worry about evidence of all the bandits I killed so the last 2 didn't seem that important."
The scout just nodded and didn't pay attention to his very obviously annoyed tone and said. "Ok, so the way I see it there's 2 possibilities: one your telling the truth and the person we paid headhunted the leader and left the other bandits alive, which is against the rules, or you took the mission earlier today and when you got there you found a bunch of bodies and thought you could get paid if you brought us a head."
Lake was starting to get pissed and for a second thought about wiping this building clean of people before taking his money but decided to just take a passive approach to this. The truth would come out but it was too bad it had to be at the expense of his time. "I would suggest you get the person you paid in here and find out."
After he said this he took a seat and waited for them to get the person in here. "Since you're a new member I would like to inform you that there is a chance we might not be able to get them here today or ever so you might want to go about your business. We'll inform you when we've made a decision on the matter."
After they said this lake guessed it made sense the person who had taken his money wouldn't just be sitting in the lobby. They would probably be hiding somewhere until they knew if they had gotten away with this so-called headhunting. If this problem was prevalent enough for it to have a name it did make him wonder why the guild kept the turn in the one head method so he asked.
"Why does the guild only ask for the one head?"
"Well we found carrying every bandit's head back was a pain for the members so we switched to right hands. We kept right hands as the method for a long time but we found the fact that we couldn't identify the bandits by the hands people brought in a big problem especially since you can't trust people who kill for money not to kill for money. I'm sure you understand what I'm saying."
Lake did, he was sure they were having a similar problem to headhunting with people bringing in hands they had taken from any random people they had killed and disappearing before the guild realized what had happened. "You're saying the head is just the best method you have found so far even if it has flaws."
"Yes, that is correct. Now that we're done with that, here is your money for the two swords." Lake could tell by the size of the bag it wasn't that much and instead of taking it right away he said. "Do you guys hold money for members, like an account or whatever."
"Yes, would you like to open one?" Lake nodded and pulled out all the money he had on him and said. "All this please."
"Alright follow me, and feel free to take your head if you would like." Lake didn't and followed behind the man until they returned to the desk he had first talked to him at. After that the man asked for his badge and told him the total for the account here at the guild, 3,654, and informed him he could withdraw at every guild branch.
Lake nodded and lined up to get a new mission, his first had ended in a disappointing manner but there was still plenty of money to make here. As he waited he took the time to look through the missions to see if there were any new ones he might be interested in.
There were new ones but nothing worth more than the 220 difficulty one so he didn't really even consider any of the new ones. When he finally made it to the counter he told them which mission he wanted and the person just shrugged before handing him a map.
Bandits in the mountains near Gwind Lake
Difficulty 220
1,500 per head
Estimated number of bandits 30
Looking at the map Lake noticed there was a bit of a journey to get there so he went ahead and started towards it. It wasn't a complicated journey and all he needed to do was stay on this road until he saw mountains which meant he could run if he wanted and he chose to to save time.
R𝑒ad lat𝒆st chapt𝒆rs at f(r)eew𝒆bnov𝒆l.com Only