Martial Online.

"Everyone, this is Ambrose, and he'll be joining us." Gxel said to his party members, who were gathered around the same table.

As the table didn't have enough chairs before, they took a few chairs from neighboring tables. It was fine since those tables were occupied by small groups.

His party members nodded with clear nervousness in the air as they looked at Ambrose, whose name had become an overnight sensation around the world.

"Take care of me." Ambrose greeted them with a nod.

"You can take my seat!" Gxel said and stood instead.

Ambrose nodded briefly and took a seat around the table.

Then, his gaze lingered in the direction of the hooded woman briefly before he crossed his arms and turned back to Gxel.

After sensing his gaze leaving her, the hooded woman briefly lifted her head to meet his eyes before looking down again.

"Alright, now that we've all gathered, we can finally start talking about the quest at hand!"

Gxel started with and pushed away the alcohol cups that were scattered on the table to make room for the map that he pulled out of his bag.

After spreading the map open on the table, Gxel pointed to the location marked with a big 'X' and said, "This is the location of the quest. It is not too far, and with carriages, we can reach the place in three hours."

Ambrose glanced at the map and thought, 'That is a place I haven't been in before, and it is near some town called Cryssallis.

'I think that is one of the Rothsmith family's towns, from what I remember.' Ambrose thought.

He heard from his father, Jack, that the Rothsmith family was in control of three towns—Morningville, Sylveon Town, and Cryssallis.

At the moment, they were making good money, but those towns were in the early phases of development.

Unlike most players, the Rothsmith family didn't gain control of those towns through violence, as they lacked the strength to do so.

However, with money, they managed to purchase those towns.

"Now, for the quest." Gxel pulled out a worn-out piece of paper and placed it on top of the map.

It showed the details of the quest.

"As you all know, it is an S-ranked quest, and the creature we need to kill is called the little dark one, Keiran."

"The little one?" A round-faced man with a bushy black beard asked, raising an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

"Is it a title of his, I suppose." Gxel chuckled and also didn't seem to know what it implied. "I'm not sure why he is called like that, but yeah, we can't drop our guard."

"The time limit is one week, which has already started since we accepted the quest.

"After killing Keiran, we aren't allowed to open the chest it drops, and instead we have to deliver it to Goldfinger. Then, we get fifty percent of the loot inside, possibly get our rank increased, and get one item each from his treasury."

"Wait," Ambrose suddenly said.

As soon as he spoke, the table turned silent, and they all turned to look at him.

The hooded woman perked up her ears and curiously side-glanced at him.

Ambrose paused for a moment, quite surprised that they all quieted down so quickly after he spoke out.

"Ahem…" He cleared his throat and said, "We have to give fifty percent of the reward to Goldfinger; is that right?"

"Yes." Gxel nodded and asked nervously. "Is that a problem?"

"Is it the same with every other quest as well?" Ambrose asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah." Gxel nodded and started explaining.

"In the registration form, it is mentioned that whoever wants to be an adventurer has to agree to that.

"Sure, it can be painful to forfeit half of the rewards from an especially rich quest like this, but in the end, we wouldn't have the opportunity to do this quest without Goldfinger and this guild.

"His guild is what we call Quest Hunters. They search the entire continent for quests, then put them here so everyone can try to complete them.

"Recently, their status has increased plenty, so many NPCs who give out quests are personally coming here to give quests to Goldfinger.

"Also, after a successful quest, depending on the rank of the quest, we can all get one item each from his treasury. There is some very good stuff inside, so giving away fifty percent of the reward can be very much worth it!"

"If someone decides to keep all the reward, then what?" Ambrose asked.

"They get kicked out of the guild, simple as that." Gxel said and asked nervously. "Are you fine with this? I know fifty percent of the reward split with now eleven people is not much."

"It is fine." Ambrose replied and nodded. "You may continue; sorry for interrupting."

"Ah, it is fine; you may ask whatever questions you have in mind!" Gxel shouted energetically and returned to the quest.

"When are we leaving?"

At that moment, the hooded woman spoke with a feminine voice that sounded surprisingly sweet.

"Miss Broken, we planned to leave tomorrow morning." Gxel said and asked, "Is that fine?"

'Miss Broken? Her name is Broken?' Ambrose thought to himself.

"Time is money, isn't that right, Ambrose?" Miss Broken looked over to Ambrose and was clearly smiling at him.

"The tournament is nearing. Who knows when it will be announced.

"I am sure our celebrity here can't waste a single day."

"Ah!" Gxel exclaimed and face-palmed. "I am sorry, I forgot about that!"

"It is fine." Ambrose said with his arms crossed. "I am fine with leaving tomorrow."

"Hmm…" Gxel looked at the rest of his party members and asked, "We are all ready, though… Are you guys fine with leaving straight away?"

Without any hesitation, his party members nodded. They had been ready for a few days now, while Gxel was finding more members for their party.

"That settles it!" Gxel turned to Ambrose with a giant smile and said, "We can leave right now. We should arrive at the place by evening!"

Ambrose nodded. "Fine by me."

As Gxel and other members of the party started picking up their bags, Miss Broken crossed her legs and said:

"You're a popular one, aren't you?"

"Am I?" Ambrose looked at her with a curious look. "You like that hood, don't you?"

Miss Broken smiled and removed her hood, revealing her short brown hair. Her face was now fully visible; she was fair-skinned with pink lips and a tiny nose.

She didn't look too old, perhaps in her early twenties, and was quite cute while giving off a tomboyish vibe.

She donned a leather jacket and ripped jeans, with combat boots and the black cloak with a hood dangling behind her. She looked like she just stepped out of a rebel movie.

While seated, she already looked shorter than most of the members of the party, but once Gxel and the rest stood up, she also stood up and seemed to be around 160 cm in height, just a bit below average for a woman.

"You've seen those gazes, haven't you?" Broken asked while facing Ambrose, who stood up and easily towered over her at nearly 2 meters tall.

"Yeah." Ambrose replied with a chuckle. "Bounty hunters, huh?"

"Your bounty is very tempting, not going to lie." Broken said and glanced behind her, where a group of cloaked figures were sitting at the corner of the tavern.

They were acting like they weren't aware of Ambrose, but whenever Broken and Ambrose looked away from them, their attention was immediately on them.

"Are you going to go for my bounty?" Ambrose asked with a smile rising on his lips.

"I might." Broken replied with a mischievous glint in her eye. "I am a thief, after all."

"Thief…" Ambrose chuckled.

"Guys, we are going!"

At that moment, Gxel shouted from the front door after seeing that their two gold-ranked adventurers stayed behind to have a chat.

"However, for now, I guess we have to work together for this quest." She extended her hand for a handshake. "Name's Broken."

"Ambrose." Ambrose slowly grabbed her small hand and shook it.

"You should be more careful." Broken said with a giggle, and once they separated from the handshake, she showed something on her hand.

There was a silver earring on her hand, as if it had recently been plucked from an ear.

Ambrose touched his right ear in surprise and couldn't feel his earring there anymore. Instead, there was a little bit of blood on his finger as his earlobe was dripping slightly with blood.

"You…" Ambrose didn't seem angry, but instead impressed. 'How did she do that? I couldn't even see it.'

"Like I said, I am a thief." Broken winked and tossed him the earring back. "If you don't keep your eyes open, I might rob you dry~"

"How kind, warning me beforehand." Ambrose grinned largely. "You're a kindhearted thief, aren't ya?"

"I like to warn my victims." Broken said and as she walked away, she turned around and blew him a kiss. "You can't stop me from robbing you, after all~"

"Oh, is that so…" Ambrose hid the earring into his fist and grinned with fighting spirit. "Let's see if you can defeat me."

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