The Meeting(?) Begins

While the attentions are directed towards both the green-skinned orc and me, I maintain my stance looking straight at the orc.

His yellow eyes and fangs are quite intimidating. I can see two axes on both sides of his waist. Not to mention the bulky gray armor that he is wearing.

Orc is a race that is famous for their strength and vitality. Their size and weight can easily reach the three times of average adult human's. Not to mention the powerful surge of mana I can feel from him...

"As the Guild Master, I suppose I need to welcome you to Liasr Guild."

"... you're welcome."

This is my first time seeing a real orc. I guess he is more polite than I thought.

"Well, people call me guild master a lot. But I'm not the type who care much about formalities. So you can call me by my name. My name is-"

"Mountain Slayer!"

Guild master's sentence is cut off by one of male adventurers who shouts at him. I look at my right side and I can see some of them snickering. These guys...

"... ehem. That is one of my titles. My name is-"

"Titan Power!!"

And another male adventurers cut his sentence again.

"... my name is-"

"Harem Prince!!!"

"SHUT UP YOU IDIOTS!!!!!!!"

"!!??"

Guild Master finally snaps and shout out his frustration.

His shout, more like his roar, creates an impact so hard that it makes my body fall backwards.

*tap!*

Thankfully, Miika holds my back using his right hand preventing me from falling to the floor.

*iiiiiiiiiing!*

"Ugh..."

His loud voice is ringing in my ears for few seconds. What a monstrous voice...

I see him telling something to me with apologetic face but I can't really hear anything

Once the ringing stops, I look and him and say "I'm fine."

"I- is that so..."

The guild master says that and still looks worried. Maybe he is actually a decent person? Unlike the laughing adventurers around us...

*flash!*

Before I can get more annoyed by those childish adventurer, Rimikia bring out brown magic circles using both of her hands and multiple ropes start coming out from that magic circles.

"!?"

Those ropes quickly bind the mouths and bodies of adventurers who keep bugging us.

"Mmmff!!"

I can only hear muffled voices coming out from those adventurers. Rimikia quickly ties them up and throw them to the floor.

"Guild Master, please continue."

"Thanks, Rimikia."

After replying to Rimikia, the guild master regains his composure and starts talking to me again.

"Well, I have few adventurer titles like 'Mountain Slayer' or 'Titan Power'. But I don't really like those titles. So you can just call me... Stephanie."

"... sorry, can you repeat your name again?"

I ask for confirmation thinking that I might mishear the name.

"My full name is Stephanie Elbint Rakusha. Stephanie is my given name."

"... you're a female?"

I never see a female orc before so I may guess this orc's gender wro-

"? No. As you can see, I'm a bona fide male."

"... can I call you guild master instead?"

Not that I have anything against that name or an orc using that name. It just feel like calling him Guild Master feels a lot easier than calling him Stephanie.

"I'm okay with it as long as it's not a weird title."

"Understood, Guild Master."

Note to my mind to always address him as guild master even in my heart.

"Steph~, the Record Crystal is ready~"

A lamia receptionist with long red hair calls out to Guild Master from the receptonist desk.

... someone really call the Guild Master like that huh...

"Got it."

Right after saying that, the orc Guild Master walks to the centre of the crowd.

"Alright guys! The time is here! We finally has the information about the monster that is hiding in Darlia Lake! Griselda, if you would..."

Griselda nods before replying back.

Griselda is standing in front of the wall which is located between receptionist side and entrance side.

She brings out a blue octahedron-shaped crystal with the size similar to a volley ball.

The crystal opens up and reveal a small blue ball of light. A light ray immediately comes out from that blue light and project itself on a wall in front of it.

Then a picture of a white giant squid underwater comes of from the that light on the wall like some kind of projector.

When the picture appears, Antarea, Pepprica, Rimikia, Veylene and others including me, immediately look at the picture on the wooden wall.

Then Guild Master proceeds the meeting by explaining the picture.

"This is the monster that is hiding in Darlia Lake. This vision comes from Griselda's puppet. It's official name is Fiend Kraken. It usually resides in the sea between Wilderystal and Sanrock continent but for some reason, it came to the lake about few months ago. Also, look at this recorded moment first."

Few seconds passes and Fiend Kraken in the picture gets surrounded by many green-coloured fishes with four legs.

That's... if I'm not wrong, it's a monster called Fishilla. An amphibious monster that sometimes preys on animals and even humans near or inside the Darlia Lake.

The Fishillas start biting Fiend Kraken. However, Fiend Kraken's quickly disappear despite how many times it gets bitten. Then the Fiend Kraken use its tentacles to squish the Fishillas to death. The battle is over once the Fiend Kraken kills all Fishillas and the light fades signalling that the record is over. Guild Master proceeds to explain what happened.

"According to Griselda, it has a magic called Torrent Heal. A magic that consumes water and turns it into mana that will be used to heal itself. As long as this monster is in contact with liquid, it will continuously regenerate itself."

The adventurers start talking to each other but Guild Master proceeds talking to calm them down.

"Now now. I know many of you may be discouraged by the facts about how strong this monster is and the fact that Panthos died."

The male adventurers immediately responds to that statement.

"WHAT!?"

"PANTHOS IS DEAD!?"

"I THOUGHT HE RAN AWAY FROM THAT MONSTER!"

"OH MY GOD, WE ARE F***ED!"

Geez, their language are so crude...

Looks like they don't know about the fact that I killed Panthos. Then the only ones who most likely know the fact are Guild Master and...

I look at the blonde elf wearing glasses, Rimikia, who is quietly standing near the receptionist desk.

"Calm down down guys. This is why we're having this meeting in the first place. Besides..."

Guild Master asks the crowd to calm down and then looks at Veylene's direction.

"We have our strongest adventurer with us!"

Almost everyone look at Veylene's direction after Guild Master's statement.

"Grr..."

"Bastard Elf..."

And they don't bother hiding their disdain while looking at her.

Veylene who realizes that many people are looking at her with annoyed expression...

"... heh."

... shows a mocking smile to all of them while still holding her book with her right hand.

"TCH!"

*spit!*

Most of the male adventurers either click their tongue or spit on the floor right after Veylene's shows her smile.

Seriously, just what did she do?

"At any rate, you guys should know that beating that monster is not impossible with her here."

The only A-rank adventurer in Liasr Guild, Veylene Reverangel... Now I'm a little bit curious on how strong she is.

"There will be two plans used for this mission. One is how to stop Fiend Kraken from regenerating itself. Though I already discussed that plan with Rimikia and Pepprica so you guys don't need to worry about."

"You can prevent that?"

One of the male adventurers who is still tied speaks up. He is the one who disturbed Guild Master's introduction earlier.

"I can pull it out of the water and has Rimikia and her assigned team to create a boundary magic to prevent it from going back into the lake. That way, that monster won't have much water supply to heal itself."

He makes it sounds like a simple task to pull out that gigantic monster.

"The 2nd plan is the trickier part. It's where you guys come in and defeat that monster."

The Guild Master looks around before continuing his talk.

"I could just make a plan on how you guys deal with that monster... but it's you guys we're talking about! There is no way you can act as planned right?! Hahahahaha!!"

"Hahahahahaha!!"

When the Guild Master starts laughing, many adventurers start agreeing with him and laughing.

... what the hell are they laughing about? Isn't this supposed to be an important meeting?

"So... I'll ask suggestions from you all. Any ideas?"

As soon as Guild Master ask that question, one male adventurer immediately raises his hand and starts shouting.

"Oh! I know! I know! We could uh... gather and..."

"AND HIT IT TILL IT DIES!!"

Other male adventurer suddenly shouts those statements. And they immediately agree with each other together with other adventurers.

"Nice!"

"Alright! Let's do this!"

Guild Master looks at the adventurers who get excited.

"That's... a good start."

"Oh come on..."

I can't helped but to comment in his helpless reply.

"Heh, ignorant morons."

Veylene's voice is loud enough for all people in the guild to hear.

"What was that!?"

"Now now... Veylene. Do you have ideas to give?"

Guild Master calms the adventurers down and asks Veylene about her ideas.

"I am the only person here who are completely immune to these guys' ignorant bullsh**s after all. What choice do I have?"

After saying that, Veylene closes her book, put it on the table before going to the center of the crowd.

Once she arrives there, she starts talking in loud voice.

"Hello everyone. Your lord and savior is here to give some of her wisdom so that you guys can be more useful than just wasting the air that you all breathe. You all better thank me."

"GRRR..!!"

Wow, that girl must be a genius in picking a fight. The adventurers start getting annoyed every time she talks...

"Let's cut to the chase."

Veylene then look at Griselda who is still standing near the wall before talking again.

"Griselda, how many tentacles that Fiend Kraken has?"

"21 if we only count from what we see from the Record Crystal. That is if we assume that the number shown in that vision is the total number that Fiend Kraken can bring out."

"21 huh. Got it."

After hearing Griselda's reply, she then looks around again with confidence.

"That means we just need more than 21 disposable pawns."

"P- pawns...?"

The Guild Master looks at Veylene with a worry look while saying that. Veylene just smiles and continue talking.

"Simple. You see, Fiend Kraken use its tentacles to squish its enemies right? Then we just have to use around 21 baits to make all its arms busy while the rest attack it's main body."

"That will be dangerous for the baits though..."

Antarea speaks up while standing near the receptionist desk.

"Of course I know that, poor Antelope."

"MY NAME IS ANTAREA DAMMIT!!!"

Despite Antarea's loud protest, Veylene continues her talk.

"Therefore, I prepared three criterias to pinpoint who are the perfect people who will take the bait role."

Criterias... like people with strong physiques?

Veylene continues speaking to explain her plan.

"First... people who thinks that grouping up and charging to the boss is a good idea... we don't need their brain anyway so give them the bait role."

"What!?"

"What do you mean by not needing our brain?!"

The male adventurers are quick to protest.

"Hahaha! Serve them right!"

One of male adventurers who got tied up with a rope near the ceiling speaks up in a mocking tone.

"Second. People who like to lift up women's skirts without their permission. Bait role~."

"Oh sh**..."

The same tied adventurer immediately realizes that he also gets the bait role.

"Third. Those males who deliberately look at woman's boobs for more than five seconds. Bait roles~!"

"OH BULLSH**!!!"

"THAT'S DISCRIMINATION!!!"

"BOOOOOOOOO!!!"

... and that's the loudest protest I've ever heard.

"Shion... are you okay?"

Miika notices me who already touch my forehead with my right hand. I immediately reply to not make him worry too much.

"Don't mind me."

Now I know why Griselda won't rely on these adventurers. Just hearing them talking makes my head hurts...

"BESIDES! WE DON'T NEED THAT BASTARD ELF'S HELP! WE CAN JUST DEFEAT THAT KRAKEN ON OUR OWN!"

"That's right!"

The adventurer starts shouting at Veylene again. Veylene still replies at them with mocking tone.

"Hooo? Big words from all of you. Then let's make a bet. If you guys ended up needing my help after all that big talk. I'll take the full reward of defeating that kraken."

"!? Wait! You can't just-!"

Guild Master is surprised by Veylene's statement. He tries to stop her but the adventurers' shout cut his sentence off.

"Bring it! Who needs the help from Bastard Elf anyway!"

"Hey! I'm the Guild Master here! You guys can't just decide-"

The voices of Veylene and angry adventurers start getting louder and louder up to the point where they no longer hear the Guild Master's words.

Guild Master who gets completely ignored can only hang his head with depressed face.

... yup. This guild is hopeless as expected.