"Hey! Arin, do you want to go to a pub?!" I turn to see Raul, and following behind him were several lower-rank adventurers as well. Some of whom I recognized, like Mob A, while the rest I only recognized by the faces I have seen a few times.
"How about 'no'? As you can see, I was preparing for a short dungeon dive," I said, showing off my new gear, which I bought. "And it's midday, why the heck are you so keen on getting drunk already?" I asked, although it was not strange to see a lot of people drinking in the day, Loki being a prime example.
However, it was unusual that all of them were going out for a drink together. "Besides, I don't even drink." After observing Raul's expression drowning in sweat. I knew it was something troublesome, and right now, I wanted to stay far away from anything remotely related to a difficult situation.
I haven't even taken a single step when Raul clung to my hand like a freaking koala. I tried shaking him off, but he surprisingly had a firm grip.
"What the heck?! Let me go!" "No, please, you have to go with us, I can't survive there alone!"
"Are you going to a war or something! And aren't you level 4 as well? Just beat them to a pulp if they are forcing you!"
"No, please, you have to go with us!"
My attempt at escaping failed as Raul put more strength, and the rest of the adventurers also started pushing me to the location I had guessed the pub to be located at.
"Come on, Arin!" called out another adventurer I recognized as 'Mob B.' "We need someone to... uh... hang out with at the pub!"
"A pub?! You know I don't drink alcohol! Why would you invite me to a pub?!" I retorted, eyeing their nervous expressions suspiciously.
"Where is your brotherhood, Arin?!" Mob A yelled, pushing my back along with his so-called brothers, "You are the last person I want to hear that from!" The memory of him bailing with Raul, as I fought against Chole and Lunoire, is still fresh in my memories. Just remembering that incident makes me want to punch him.
Alas, my resistance was of no use as they dragged me to the 'pub', located near the main market. As we entered, the smell of strong liquor hit my nose, making it scrunch up I could see the pub was already packed to the brim, with people laughing and drowning themselves in alcohol.
And with several more people entering the place, it started to feel congested. But fortunately, we were able to get a seat near the counter. Everyone sat down on the wooden chairs placed around a round table, and I also sat down with my back facing the front door.
I pick up the menu to see if I can get a light meal, when I hear them whisper among themselves.
"Hey, are you sure it's fine?" one guy murmured, "course, pretty sure they will sh*t their pants seeing two level 4 adventurers, not to mention one of them is the Astralis." assure the other, "yes, they will go down on their knees begging us to keep them as our henchmen!" now they were not even hiding it, talking loudly and laughing at the whatever delusion they cooked up in their heads.
But from their conversation, I was able to connect the dots. Although I wanted to just leave Raul here, since he was the one who convinced me to come here.
But he is still my friend, and I am more than sure that it was Mob A who forced him into this. So I tried to get his attention and to let him know that we are leaving. But before I could do that, I heard several loud footsteps echoing behind me. I looked back to see around 15 really muscular guys enter the pub, and I looked around in an attempt to find someone.
"O-Oye, they are here," one of the adventurers at our table spoke, "don't worry, we have Atralis with us." Another tried to calm the nerves, before I could say anything to these idiots, all the newcomers started near our table, and stopped, their eyes glaring at each other.
The biggest guy among them, who looked like he could bench press a Minotaur, stepped forward with a menacing grin.
"Well, well, well... look what we have here," he said, his voice booming across the pub. "If it isn't the tough guys."
"That's right, boss!" one of his lackeys immediately chimed in. "These are the ones!"
"Yeah, boss! The ones who were talking big yesterday!" another henchman added, nodding eagerly.
The leader cracked his knuckles slowly. "So you're the idiots who think you can just waltz around insulting people and get away with it, huh?"
Mob A was trying to shrink into his chair. "W-we didn't insult anyone!"
"SHUT UP!" the boss roared. "One of you cheated my buddy Takeshi out of his money with loaded dice!"
"Boss, it was that one!" a lackey pointed directly at Mob A. "He's the cheater!"
"Yeah, boss! He used fake dice and everything!" another henchman confirmed.
The leader's eyes swept across our table menacingly, clearly enjoying intimidating us. But then his gaze landed on me, and his confident expression suddenly faltered.
"Wait a minute..." he squinted at me, "your face... I've seen you somewhere..."
One of his smarter-looking henchmen leaned over and whispered urgently in his ear. I watched as the leader's eyes slowly widened in recognition.
"Holy crap," he breathed, taking a step back. "You're... you're Astralis, aren't you?"
The entire group of muscle-heads suddenly went silent.
"Boss, what do we do?" one of them whispered nervously.
"It's really him!" another henchman confirmed, his voice shaking. "Then High Human!"
"The Level 4 prodigy!" a third one added, looking like he was about to wet himself.
I could see the gears turning in the leader's head as he processed this information. His face went through several expressions - fear, confusion, and then suddenly, greedy determination.
"Boys," he said slowly, a dangerous gleam in his eyes, "change of plans."
"Boss?" his lackeys looked confused.
"Forget about the money!" he declared loudly. "Do you realize who we have here? This is ASTRALIS! If we take him down, we'll be legends!"
"But boss," one of the smarter ones protested weakly, "he's Level 4! And he's famous for—"
"EXACTLY!" the leader cut him off, getting more excited. "Think about it, you idiots! If we gang up on him and win, everyone in Orario will know our names!"
I felt exhausted already. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me..."
"All fifteen of us against him, No! Call the others as well!" the leader continued, his eyes gleaming with stupid ambition. While one henchman ran out of the pub, "We'll be the guys who brought down the mighty Astralis!"
"This is such a bad idea," I muttered under my breath.
"Yeah, boss!" the henchmen chorused, their fear suddenly replaced by greedy excitement. "We'll be famous!"
"The crew that defeated Astralis!"
"They'll put statues of us in the plaza!"
"Everyone will buy us drinks!"
I turned to glare at my so-called friends. "This is exactly why I hate going places with you people!"
"How were we supposed to know they'd recognize you?!" Mob A squeaked.
"My name is literally ASTRALIS! Half of Orario knows what I look like!"
The leader slammed his fist on our table. "Alright, pretty boy! You and your cheating friends are gonna get what's coming to you!"
"Actually," I said, standing up slowly and trying to keep my voice calm, "why don't we talk about this like reasonable people? What exactly did my... 'friend'... do to this Takeshi person?"
"Your 'friend,'" the boss sneered, making air quotes, "cheated Takeshi out of eight thousand valis using loaded dice! Then spent it all on booze."
I slowly turned to stare at Mob A, who was now hiding behind his menu. "Is this true?"
"I... the dice were just really lucky?" Mob A offered weakly.
"TWENTY DOUBLE SIXES IN A ROW!" one of the lackeys shouted.
"With dice that cost thirty thousand valis!" another added.
"ENOUGH TALKING!" the boss roared. "We're not here for your money anymore, Astralis! We're here for GLORY!"
"Boss is right!" his henchmen cheered. "Let's get him!"
"All at once!"
"Show him what happens when he messes with us!"
I looked around the packed pub full of adventurers, their expressions making it clear that they were getting excited about the prospect of a fight. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife.
"Listen," I said, raising my hands, "maybe we should—"
But before I could finish my sentence, one of the boss's overly excited henchmen made a grand gesture with his arm, accidentally knocking over a massive tankard of ale from a nearby table. The alcohol went flying in a perfect arc through the air.
SPLASH!
The beer landed squarely on a gruff-looking dwarf adventurer who was peacefully enjoying his meal at a corner table.
The entire pub went dead silent.
The dwarf slowly stood up, ale dripping from his magnificent beard, his face turning redder than a fire spirit. "WHO?!" he bellowed in a voice that shook the wooden beams.
"It wasn't us!" the boss pointed frantically at the henchman who had knocked over the drink. "It was him!"
"YOU BASTARD!" the henchman shouted back. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO MADE US COME HERE!"
The dwarf's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I don't care who did what! SOMEONE'S GONNA PAY!"
He grabbed the nearest chair and hurled it across the room, where it smashed into a table full of Soma Familia members who had been quietly drinking in the corner.
"HEY!" one of them shouted, standing up with wine stains all over his robes. "What's the big idea?!"
"THAT'S IT!" another Soma member yelled, grabbing a bottle and hurling it back at the dwarf.
The bottle missed the dwarf entirely and instead hit another adventurer in the head.
"OUCH! Who threw that?!" he shouted, looking around wildly before his eyes landed on a table. "WAS IT YOU GUYS?!"
"What?! No!" a skinny guy protested. "We didn't—"
His protest was cut short as the adventurer lunged across three tables to tackle him.
And that's when all hell broke loose.
"BRAWL!" someone shouted with way too much enthusiasm.
Chairs started flying through the air like oversized projectiles. Mugs of ale became improvised weapons. Someone flipped an entire table, sending food and drinks cascading everywhere.
"This is chaos!" Raul screamed, ducking as a loaf of bread whizzed past his head.
"No kidding!" I shouted back, Raul and I standing back to back, kicking and punching anyone who came close. Is this the legendary bar fight I saw so many times?
"GET ASTRALIS!" the original boss shouted over the chaos, but his voice was completely drowned out by the sound of breaking furniture and battle cries.
"Boss, where is he?!" one of his henchmen called back, looking around frantically.
"I DON'T KNOW! EVERYTHING'S ON FIRE!"
"Nothing's actually on fire!" I called out.
"SOMEONE SET SOMETHING ON FIRE!" the henchman shouted back.
"DON'T GIVE THEM IDEAS!"
A mug of ale flew over our heads and smashed into the wall behind us.
"Arin," Mob A whispered, huddled behind the overturned table, "I'm starting to think this wasn't such a good idea."
"YOU THINK?!" I shouted as a whole roasted chicken sailed past us.
"Should we help stop this?" Raul asked as I threw someone over my shoulder right onto a table. Not gonna lie, it's kinda enjoyable.
"Are you insane?!" Mob B yelled. "Look at this place! It's like a war zone!"
Indeed, the pub had transformed into complete chaos. Adventurers were swinging from the chandelier, others were sliding across tables, someone had somehow gotten stuck upside-down in a barrel, and I was pretty sure I saw someone trying to use a fish as a weapon.
"Let's get out of here," I said, as we started making our way towards the door, defeating any opponent that got in the way, but we were unable to leave the pub as the guy from before brought a lot more guys, making the already chaotic pub even more chaotic, and somewhere along the way I got separated form the goup.
And so instead of going from the front, I thought of exiting from the back door.
SHING!!
Even in this chaotic atmosphere, I didn't miss the sound of a knife cutting through the air, aiming at my rib cage, but before it could connect with my body, I grabbed the hand holding the knife.
"Bringing a knife to a bar fight? Now that's not very gentlemanly, is it?" I was unable to identify the attacker as he was wearing a cloak, but I could see the way light reflected under the hood where his eyes should be. I was able to guess, he was wearing glasses.
I threw my fist at his face, intending to knock him out, but another cloaked person intervened, slashing at my neck. I jumped back slightly, only to see them running out of the pub. I wanted to give them a chase, but a wall of humans blocked my path.
The first guy seems to have the strength of someone around level 4, while the other is around level 2 or maybe 3.
Seeing that they were already gone, I decided to stop these guys who seemed to be having too much fun; Skati and others must be on their way as well. I thought and decided to get a little serious.
And after Ganesha's familia arrived, everyone in the bar simply escaped; those who were caught were charged to reimburse the pub owner for the damages. Fortunately, I was spared that fate. And with that, my day came to a close, and I returned home without another surprise attack.