80    New Face ( 2 )

“Hyung, I have something that I want to ask.”

“Hmm?”

“By any chance, is hyung… waiting for those players?”

At the end of those words from An Hyun, everyone stopped moving. Yoo-Jung looked like she wanted to know what An Hyun was asking about. Vivian was sitting next to An Hyun and was just watching this scenario like a statue as if she was stuck there because of a spell. I could only hear everyone’s breathing, and their eyes were all on me.

I thought ‘Look at this guy?’ when seeing An Hyun’s eyes. And his eyes were completely lively and filled with politeness.

In the past, the kids asked me about venturing out and exploring, but I just looked at them in a bewildered manner. Since then, I have been implicitly resting and training. But this time, An Hyun turned back and asked me, and the main thing that he asked me now was ‘Are you waiting for the players to come? Are we not exploring yet?’

After gazing at An Hyun, I directed my gaze toward the other kids who were looking at me dazedly. I opened my mouth with a calm voice.

“Yes. Right now, I’m waiting for those two.”

“Ah….”

As soon as An Hyun replied by stretching that word, I scrutinized the kids to see their reactions. An Hyun and Yoo-Jung were just looking at me; Sol’s face was complicated, but Vivian’s face turned dark.

“So you’re going to add another one to our party?”

At the question from Yoo-Jung, I dropped my spoon into the plate and tapped my finger. Putting my face on my hand, I started replying to her question.

“I was going to talk about this someday, but maybe it’s better to talk right now.”

“Are you talking about getting more people in the future?”

“That too, and about the clan that we are going to make.”

I put my hand on the other arm and interlocked them. The surrounding area was very noisy. Players who spoke nonsense, players who were farting, players who were trying to kick the butts of other players, and people having serious conversations among their friends. I lit the tobacco and put it in my mouth.

“But will they come? We still have 0 years; it is still very little experience.”

An Sol ended her words, and the other kids displayed a sympathetic face towards Sol’s words. There was nothing wrong with her words, but there was one thing that she overlooked. That thing was Vivian.

“That said, at the current level of our wizard, we don’t need a caravan.”

“Eh? Aren’t we the players who are still lacking?”

“Not anymore. There’s Vivian.”

The kids sight turned towards Vivian in that moment. And finally, Vivian, who was stuffing a full spoon of noodles into her mouth, stopped breathing, and her face turned tight. A few moments passed, and a few strands of noodles were hanging out of Vivian’s mouth, hanging mid-air. I opened my mouth after seeing her reaction.

“You can eat, Vivian. It is alright. You guys too, listen while eating.”

But the kids didn’t even take a bite. Vivian had a smiley face, ate the noodles, and put down her cutlery. I stretched out my hand and wiped the food that was stuck on her mouth. Vivian showed a little rejection as she hesitated. Soon Yoo-Jung’s breathing became rough, so I immediately took back my hand.

“You might have seen it before, but Vivian is a great wizard. The other day, at the Rite of Passage, we came across wizards in the square. Like Yubin.”

“The same year whom Park Hyun-Woo followed?”

“Yes. She is also a prestigious mage in Barbara, but even with two mages of her calibre, they won’t be able to defeat Vivian.”

An Sol and An Hyun looked at Vivian with shining eyes. Vivian stopped for a moment and straightened herself. Yoo-Jung had a poor face, and she didn’t utter a single word.

“Three for offence, one wizard, and one priest. Maybe the caravan rate is exact right now. Nevertheless, waiting for those two wizards… I think they are suitable recruitment candidates for the clan.”

I stopped talking for a while; I inhaled the tobacco and let out the smoke. I smiled with satisfaction as I looked at the ones in front of me. The kids were waiting for my next words without a single word.

“I want to create a clan with two noticeable characteristics. One small group of elites and one with a nature of mercenaries.”

“A group of elite and… mercenaries?”

An Hyun seemed to understand. The kids all looked up. To be honest, the mercenary clan was a little difficult to understand and explain, too. However, I decided to explain it in simple terms for them.

A few them were literal things. If you create a clan, you’ll need to do a few things in the future. I didn’t mean to create a clan that receives hordes of people just like that, but I want top-level players or someone with qualities and potential to be a top-level player.

This was only possible for me. To see the top-level players and grasp their achievements – it wasn’t an easy task to grasp their abilities without having the third eye, like I do. Of course, there are some users who possess great stats from the very beginning, but there were also some players who needed a little molding. But, there’s an ability to measure the abilities and stats of the players. I remember some of the prospects of the new players. It becomes very advantageous for recruitment in the future. But.

“And to do that, our clan should have a good reputation. If the clan that we create appears to be small, it is likely to be rejected as a clan even if we could recruit others. So, I want to make a clan with mercenary characters.”

Vivian and Sol were listening to this intently. However, the faces of Yoo-Jung and An Hyun had frowns on them. Their brain wasn’t that bad, they could process it well, but they couldn’t understand it for some reason. I had to give the kids some time to think about this.

The first person who spoke the words, as if in an emergency, was Yoo-Jung.

“Oppa! I don’t understand. What do we have to do with building a clan with mercenaries?”

“The mercenaries are those who receive money and carry out referrals. There isn’t one clan that is similar to this concept. Everyone is doing the tasks that is assigned by Barbara and their corresponding roles in the city. If there was a clan with these characters of mercenary in the middle, everyone will surely get interested.”

“Still… I don’t think it will be easy that way… I wonder if the already present clans would accept this.”

I smiled faintly. By the time we left Mule, I was going to tell them that I was a swordsmith and that Vivian was a Chimera Alchemist. In addition, we can make another chimera alchemist, and if luck follows, I can mould An Hyun as a maker too. Could someone ignore a clan with three rare classes?

The answer was a no. There would be a few who would entrust us in the first place, but conversely, some of them would try to merge with us. We would continue to grow gradually while maintaining the neutrality.

When I was thinking about this, I heard from An Sol who was quiet until now.

“Oppa. Then, are you thinking about free mercenaries?”

“Yes.”

Indeed an honor student, An Sol immediately knew what I was thinking. She smiled for a while and then continued.

“I was curious as to why you did not register as a citizen of the Northern Continent, so you were thinking about this. I heard that if a player registered himself as a free mercenary, I heard that he and the clan suffered from disadvantages compared to the clans who were registered as ordinary citizens.”

“It is hard to consider that as a disadvantage. They just don’t get preferential treatment. You can think of this as keeping our lives the same as now. And if we join them, your life will be torn down by their preferences. You won’t have a chance.”

Free mercenary registration. Free mercenary clan. In other words, it was said that there would be no need to be tied down to any city in the North. As long as a clan resides in the Northern Continent, the normal players can give them duties according to their wish in any situation or in emergency.

However, free mercenaries are different. It can be said that they have been liberated from all such responsibilities and duties. As such, Sol does not receive any preferential treatment, but there are funny things, that is, if you look at this in a special way.

For a registered clan, if you earn money later on, you will exempted from buying a clan house or a private house or guild. Or, you can choose to protect the people. In a large number of expeditions, general players who are registered will be selected first. Or if you hit hard at an exploration, you will have more than a certain amount of support at the city level, help you in recovery, and so on…

At first glance, there are many clauses that will be drawn, but if you look at it in detail, everyone will have a good light on them. As I went to the second half, it was nothing like this Hall Plane. Of course, there will be more provisions, but they will eventually get worn out. In the future, the value of a free mercenary status is much higher than that of an affiliated clan’s privileges.

That future is not that far. It had been over a month since we arrived in Mule, so there will be a steel lane expedition like the one by the Golden Lion Clan that will depart two months later. If you’re mindful of the coming civil war, all of the above provisions are nothing more that idle sculptures. And at that time, there will come a time when the identity of freedom will shine, and the power of justifying freedom would come into existence.

It isn’t bound to a continent nor is it bound to a city. Such power and cause can keep neutrality in the action.

But I couldn’t say all these things to them, not now at least. The kids still lacked the ability to judge what was right or wrong. As for a simple battle, their eyes have opened a little, but that was it. It was a little unreasonable to demand kids in the Hall Plane to respond on the sensitive flow of this world. However, if we don’t go through that flow, we will be abandoned.

The table was silent for a while. The surrounding noises were also very small. I looked at Vivian who had thankful face while looking at us. I saw that Vivian’s eyes twinkled. I decided to see these as important things, so I would have to shield my mouth and prevent the leakage of more words. I just responded to her with a bright smile.

“I’ll do it. Honestly, it was the same as when I left Barbara. But, hyung succeeded soon. I don’t know much about this yet, but for now, I’ll just believe and follow him.”

An Hyun calmed his breath and declared his decision. I nodded my head in response.

“Yes, Since there is still time on your hands, think slowly. There will surely come a time for the free mercenaries to shine. That is what I think.”

Yoo-Jung just nodded with a face that didn’t understand this yet. I couldn’t imagine Sol rebelling against me in the first place, and Vivian was following my lead because I wrote the contract. Rather, An Hyun seemed a little excited as it was going to be a small group of elite people.

“Hmm…. Then do you think that Unnie has the qualities to be the top user?”

“Right. That player and you guys, too.”

“Ha… But who was he? Was he called Shin Sang Yong? I don’t know that guy much.”

I listened to the words of Yoo-Jung, and I immediately reviewed Shin Sang Yong’s information.

< Player Status >

Name: Shin Sang Yong ( 2 years )

Class: Normal Mage Expert

Affiliated Nation: Barbara

Clan: –

Nature . Nationality: Those who seek the truth of magic . Korea

Sex: Male ( 28 )

Height . Weight: 183.7cm . 69.2kg

Alignment: Lawful. True

[ Strength 40 ]       [ Resistance 42 ] [ Agility  45 ] [ Vitality  40 ] [ Magic  85 ] [ Luck 60 ]

Again, the wizard has sufficient magic ability. It would be real nice if the strength, durability, and agility weren’t so low. Though only those conditions were met, but he was still a mage. This was why I’m currently putting Jung Ha Yeon on top of Shin Sang Yong.

Of course, the magic was high and the other abilities were good too, but this was like a scheme. Just like mine.

Given that this was the ability of Shin Sang Yong in just his second year, it could be observed that he has the quality to become a top player. But, I have yet to form an impression of him. In truth, I was setting the standards for assessing his final worth.

‘Those who seek the truth of magic,’ it was hard to assess that as this was the first time that I was seeing it. But, it was a bit depressing after I looked at the special abilities and the latent abilities.

It was then.

“Mr. Kim Su-Hyun.”

I heard a voice calling me, and I felt door of the Inn open behind me. Soon, familiar footsteps could be detected. The people did tell that they would come back again today.