Zain and the others arrived at the guild.
Everyone froze when they all appeared at once, until Zain calmly walked up to the receptionist.
"The quest is completed. Twelve captives rescued and one bandit captured with a bounty on his head," Zain said to Sarah.
"Sir, may we check the bandit you killed?"
"Ah,no one was killed," Zain replied. "I said captured, not killed. He's right over there."
Zain pointed to the bandit lying face down on the floor. Sarah couldn't see his face, so Zain walked over, grabbed the man, and yanked him upright so she could see him clearly.
The moment Sarah saw his face, she froze.
"It's… Brad. Brad the Rapid."
Zain blinked, surprised by the name.
"Sorry,did you say Brad the Rapid? Why is he called that?"
Sarah was about to explain when the guildmaster appeared at the top of the stairs.
He had just sat down upstairs when the commotion below reached him. It hadn't been long since Zain had left the guild. Zack had gone upstairs barely a minute after Zain departed and now, once again, chaos echoed from downstairs.
"I can explain that."
Zack descended the stairs and about to explain.
"He's called the Rapid because everytime he invades every village, he rapes every woman in the village."
"Isn't it better to call him Brad the Rapist?"
"Well, that's not all he does. He rapes every woman, killes every old people, sells man and young children to slavery and plunders the village. He's called Rapid because he always escape too quickly after he did his crimes. His crimes happens quickly and he escapes quickly besides that, he doesn't stop his crimes.
You see, his crimes eventually reached the King and he issued an order to capture or kill him on sight. He issued a reward to the guild he's captured or killed, the one who did the did would get a reward. Since you captured him, the reward is yours. His head is worth 10 gold. Your reward would be 8 golds and 50 silvers. The guild gets to keep 1 gold and 50 silvers."
'Man he talks a lot.'
"Okay, I understand. Anyway you can give me the 8 golds and keep 50 silvers since I did pay my registration fee."
"No, it's in the house. No need to pay it." Said Zack.
"Okay."
Zain kept the money and gave 3 silvers to every child he came with. Since they were 13, that means he gave away 39 silver coins and was left with 8 golds and 11 silvers.
Zack and Sarah was surprised by what he did.
Kids where shocked that they got the money without doing anything.
While everyone was shocked, Brad began to wake up. Upon waking up, he realised he was in a different location. He saw the man who attacked him talking to the kids and was furious.
Zain knew that Brad woke up but seems everyone hasn't realised it yet except Sarah and Zack.
Brad was about to attack the kids but he froze mid attack.
*REGAL FORCE - Minimized Version*
Brad couldn't move his body.
"Ahh, I manage to diminish its power without diminishing its output." Zain said as his head looked at Brad.
Brad realise that he was the cause of him being frozen. Children followed the gaze of Zain and was shocked to find out Brad frozen in attack stance.
"The first time I used it,I forgot to control it. The second time, I targeted just one person. The third was to knock out your entire group. So I figured, If I release just right amount, I can freeze the weak targets without making them collapse."
Zain explain that to Brad and Brad was visible afraid. He was eventually sweating and he peed himself infront of everyone because what was infront of him was not a human but a monster disguised as human.
At first glance, Zain looked normal. Solid build. Neutral stance. Nothing out of place.
But the moment Brad made eye contact locked, the perception shifted.
The man was no longer fully human.
What Brad saw was a black humanoid silhouette, perfectly matching his shape, but stripped of detail like a living shadow wearing his body. A dense black aura bled outward from him, heavy and still, not flickering like smoke but pressing into the air as if it had weight.
No face. No features.
Just two red eyes, glowing steadily from within the darkness.
They weren't wild or enraged.
They were focused. Aware. Watching back.
The aura didn't attack. It didn't move.
It simply existed, as if the figure had always been there and Brad had only just gained the ability to see it momentary.
Whatever that presence was, it wasn't pretending to be human.
And Zain knew Brad had been noticed.
"So Brad. Let's do this, you're captured alive or you die but I ain't going to kill you. You're going to kill yourself." Zain said that with a smile.
Zain cancelled the ability and Brad fell down but still conscious.
"I'll get captured." Brad said while he was scared.
Zack and Sarah was confused that he cooperated with Zain.
"Nice work Lucas, I thought you were going to kill him."
"What do you take me for? I've never killed anyone in my life."
Everyone was surprised when Zain said that.
"You're kidding right? Tell me you're joking Lucas."
"Nope. I've never killed anyone and I'm a virgin too" Zain said and thought 'Technically I am a virgin.'
Now everyone was thinking that Zain was lying but nobody said it out loud.
"Anyway, I gotta leave. By the way, do you know where I can find someone selling houses?"
Zain asked Zack a question.
"Oh, if you turn right after you get out of the guild and head straight till you see an Alchemy Shop. The front opposite of that shop is where you can find that woman." Zack said with a slight irritation it his voice but barely noticeable.
'That woman. Sounds personal. Better not ask but I'm gonna do something.' Zain thought to himself.
"Thanks Zack. See you later"
Zain was about to leave when the children decided to follow him. Zain stopped and ask them what they were doing and they said they wanted to follow him but Zain refused.
He told Zack if he could take all the kids to they're homes and shelter but they all told him that they had nowhere to go. They told him that they were orphan since they're villages and home were destroyed. Some told him that their families were going to sell them but Zack told him he was not ready to take all the responsibility since he doesn't know how to take care of himself.
Zain was leaving them in the guild but they still followed him. Zain told them that he could teleport and go to other kingdoms if they kept bothering him. That's when they eventually stop because they knew he could teleport.
Zain left the guild after that.
_____
Zack looked at Zain as he left and was surprised by his reaction but understandable.
He asked if they have anywhere they should go but they told him that they'll go to the slums.
They ask if they could register as the adventures too.
They can but they need to pay 5 silvers for the registration fee. They only had 3 silvers each and each person needs to pay 5 silvers.
Since 5 were already adventures, they helped everyone to register with their coins but they were 1 coin short.
[A/N: 13 people. Each person was given 3 silvers each, 5 were already adventures and 8 were not adventures. So we calculate how much money is needed for registration. 5 silver coins multiply by 8 is 40. The total they all had was 39 silver coins. Which means 1 silver coin is needed.
Hope you understand this.]
They all saw that they were short with 1 coin. The youngest decided that she should be the one to not register but they all rejected it.
They eventually agreed to not register and found a way to make money so they could all register at once.
Sarah saw them decoding to abandoned registering because of a missing coin, so she paid gave them 1 silver coin from a pocket money.
They were all thankful. Genuinely thankful.
They all successfully registered and were given F-Ranks.
[A/N: I think nobody noticed or they thought I made a mistake on the last chapter {Chapter 7: First Quest} but it wasn't a mistake. Zain didn't read all the rules of the adventures guild, he just read a rule that was all in capital letters. Thank you.]
Sarah began to think about something.
'Did he make them short on 1 silver coin on purpose or was it a coincidence? How did he know they'll want to register as adventurers?'
Sarah thought it's weird if he thought all that.