Summoning the Holy Sword

Things progressed smoothly. After Lize was returned from the Mercenary Association, she was stunned after noticing the new stronghold. She stood anxiously in front of the entrance while holding the supplies that she had just bought, not daring to come in. If it were not for Rhode, who found her rooted to the ground in a daze, Lize would’ve probably stood there until night came.

Seeing the changes, naturally, she had some doubts. Although Rhode said that he would tidy up things, just by common sense, anyone would have assumed that he’d just cleaned up the broken furniture, and not deliver a complete makeover. Clearly, Rhode did not want to explain much, so she did not ask further. After she went through a lot of things, she began to trust him unconditionally. Even though what he did was odd, but since Rhode was a very mysterious person, so there was nothing strange.

And Lize believed that one day he would tell her everything.

Rhode heard from her about the situation in the Mercenary Association. That old man was left speechless once she recounted the story that happened. It was apparent that he did not expect the both of them to conquer the haunted house. On the other hand, Sereck took their side. He even gave some advice to Rhode, reminding him that he should be more careful to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Rhode’s heart felt warm about Sereck’s kind and genuine reminder. While Haunted House had a bad reputation, Deep Stone City still did not send its top-tier fighters to conquer it. For a Master Swordsman like Sereck, he could easily subdue the undead. But the reason he did not do so was not that the enemy was stronger than him, but instead, it was because of some other external factors.

In the end, this place was situated at the highest district and belonged to the nobles, which would certainly spell trouble for them if they interceded needlessly. Once the greedy nobles discovered that the haunted house was no longer cursed, matters would become incredibly troublesome. After all, 500 gold coins for a large mansion was utterly absurd, even calling it a bargain was an understatement. Naturally, some people would have sinister intentions to take the house back. As the saying goes, there was no free lunch in this world.

Rhode knew about this matter, but he was curious as to why Sereck would remind him of such things since both of them was not even close… Was it because of the battle from before that made Sereck fond of him?

But these were matters that weren’t of a high priority now. The current challenge was how to further develop his mercenary group.

Rhode highlighted the first problem: Manpower.

He didn’t know the answer, but deep inside, he understood—

He understood that time wouldn’t rewind itself. It was delusional for him to believe that he could start over.

…That was what he had believed, until he arrived to this world.

Now that Rhode finally found an opportunity to change this fate, he wouldn’t waste it by ‘playing casually.’ He didn’t want to experience that feeling of helplessness from before. Whether as a refugee or player, he would never allow himself to suffer from that kind of humiliation once again.

Rhode had thought of visiting the Golden City after leaving Dusk Forest. But after hearing about Lize’s plight, he changed his mind. Since he could form a guild powerful enough to contend against Hell’s devils and destroy both countries of Light and Darkness, he was confident that he could do it again. Even killing the Void Dragon wasn’t an impossible task in the future.

He still had one and a half year of time. While it wasn’t a long time, it wasn’t short either.

And now, he had already acquired the Mercenary Association acknowledgment and a stronghold. He could finally start to rebuild his glory from before. This time, he wasn’t going to feel the shame from before, this was something he absolutely could not tolerate.

Since everything was going on the right track, it was time for him to begin preparations.

Admiring Deep Stone City’s scenery from the window, Rhode began to recall those NPCs attributes and skills. Then an idea struck him.

“Lize.”

He stood up and knocked on the desk. Soon, the girl who was seemingly engrossed in a book, heard his call and stood up immediately.

“Let’s go to the Mercenary Association.”

The Mercenary Association was as lively as usual. Mercenaries were sitting in the hall, drinking and chatting at the various tables. More people were queuing in front of the hall to accept and hand in commissions.

Rhode quickly found his mercenary group name on the stone slabs of all the mercenaries group in Paphield area. The total number of mercenary groups on the stone slab was 32, and Starlight was ranked the last with an eye-catching number beside it, 0.

Lize felt somewhat helpless when she saw the ranking. Although she had already seen it yesterday, but to think that her mercenary group which was previously around the middle, fell to the bottom of the list overnight, wasn’t a pleasant thought to have.

She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down and said, “Sir, we are now ranked last. 0 points… Even other mercenary groups have five points at the very least. We must think of some way.”

“I know.”

Rhode nodded in response and looked up. Then he saw another name —— Red Hawk. If he remembered correctly, the Red Hawk leader was a friend of Lize. It seemed like they were doing quite well, ranked at the 21st. They belong to the standard level, without any merit, which was not too low and not too high.

The reason Rhode arrived here today was not because of them. He glanced at the other side of the hall.

The arrangement of the Mercenary Association was distinct. The left side of the hall was the place occupied by mercenary groups, and the right was the place for those idle and unorganized mercenaries to hang out. These people do not have a mercenary group and could only wait here while taking on some common missions, or wait for a mercenary group to recruit them. Because of that, this place was much quieter than the left side.

Rhode and Lize’s appearance caused a lot of heads to turn. A group of rowdy mercenaries whistled loudly and greeted the both of them uncouthly. Rhode ignored the idiots who couldn’t even recognize his gender, whereas, for Lize, it was just another day for her. She gave a smile as a courtesy, and did not respond. She knew that these mercenaries were actually bored, and wanted to find some fun. Whether she met their greetings with anger or happiness, they still accomplished their goal. Thus, it was better to just ignore them, lest attracting unnecessary trouble.

Rhode turned his head towards the corner and walked over…

The cup of wine was as sweet as usual…

The old man put down the glass in his hand while forcefully holding his slightly trembling right hand. He leaned against the chair, looking at the ground. He was once the member of Wind Glory mercenary group. At that time he was very confident, brave, and energized. For countless of times, he dreamed that someday he was going to be a mercenary group leader. To lead his men to go on an adventure was his hope and his dream.

But after this injury, everything changed for the worse.

He had lost the strength from before, and those who had worshiped him before, also abandoned him. And what was he now? The youngster who had a limitless future, was now a poor old man who could not do anything besides drinking alcohol. Thinking about this, he could not help but sigh again. He looked up and glanced at the group of youngsters around him. They were too young and still dreaming. Adventure, beauty, money, fame… what were those? Everything was meaningless once they lost something to rely on, then what would become of them?

The old man reached out his hand and touched his right eye that was covered by an eye patch. Then he raised his glass signaling the bartender for another cup.

At this time, he noticed two people sitting beside him.

“Mr. Walker? Mr. Didar Walker?”