The Garbage Collector Who Stumbled Upon Mythical Weapons! - Chapter 19
Garm took the request form to the guild’s reception desk.
Requests like this get closed once they reach the maximum number of participants, so he had to check if it was still open.
“Yes, it’s fine. You’ll be the last ones to sign up, so there’s no problem.”
“Oh, really? That’s great!”
Garm let out a breath of relief upon hearing the approval.
The mission seemed dangerous, but the reward was good, so he wanted to take it.
“Looks like it’s settled, huh?”
Clay approached Garm with a grin.
Garm took the documents handed to him at the reception and checked the contents—
“Not bad! Time to go wild against some monsters!”
Clay said this as he handed the documents to Van and started walking toward the guild’s entrance.
“I’m heading home. Let me know once the job’s scheduled.”
Garm sighed as he watched Clay walk out.
“Man, he really hates me, huh?”
“Sorry, Garm. He’s actually a good guy deep down…”
Garm looked back at the documents in his hands.
—If I don’t prove myself on this job, I’ll get kicked out… I’d have to find a new party all over again.
Noticing Garm’s troubled expression, Sophia spoke up.
“It’ll be fine, Garm! Once Clay sees what you can do, he won’t have any choice but to accept you. Cheer up!”
Encouraged by Sophia’s usual upbeat attitude, Garm allowed a small smile.
“Yeah… I just have to do what I always do!”
As they were about to leave the guild, a voice suddenly called out from behind them.
“Hey, isn’t that Garm?”
When Garm turned around, he saw four burly men standing there. He recognized one of them.
“Macaus… Macaus?! It’s been a while.”
It was Macaus, who had become an adventurer around the same time as Garm. He wore an expensive-looking bronze armor, with a giant axe strapped to his back.
His gray hair reached his shoulders, and he had a thick mustache.
Though his hairline had receded, his muscular body was nearly twice the size of Garm’s.
Since he had risen through the guild ranks faster than Garm, he always acted arrogantly and looked down on him.
—Great, just what I needed…
“So it’s true you came back to being an adventurer… starting from the lowest F rank, right?”
Macaus strode up to Garm, looking down at him with a sneer.
“Nope, your info’s outdated! I got promoted to E rank today. Pretty fast, huh?”
“Oh?”
Macaus shifted his gaze to Van and Sophia, standing behind Garm.
“So these are your new party members? You sure joined a group of youngsters.”
“What’s it to you? More importantly, did you want something?”
Macaus snorted and pointed at the documents in Garm’s hands.
“You guys took that request, right? Well, so did we.”
“You too?! Your party was… wait…”
Macaus smirked and gestured toward the men behind him.
“Our party, Albatross, is B rank. Among the groups taking this request, we’re the highest rank.”
“Ugh… that means…”
Garm hesitated.
When multiple parties take on a request together, it’s an unwritten rule that they follow the instructions of the highest-ranked party.
“Make sure you don’t drag us down, Garm! You’ve been out of action for a while, so who knows if you’ll even be useful!”
Laughing loudly, Macaus walked away.
Garm clenched his teeth in frustration.
He was confident he wouldn’t lose in pure ability, but Macaus had the guild’s trust. Garm couldn’t even argue.
“Albatross, huh…”
Van muttered while watching Macaus leave.
“He seems like a real pain. Are you two close?”
“Not at all. I hate that guy!”
Sophia made a disgusted face, while Amber, standing beside her, furrowed her brows.
“Either way, the subjugation will be led by them since they’re B rank. We just have to prepare ourselves properly.”
With Van’s words, they wrapped up for the day. But Garm couldn’t shake off his unease.
—Dealing with Clay was already stressful enough, and now Macaus is here too… I just hope this mission goes smoothly.
Three days later, the mission to eliminate the monsters in the mines was scheduled.
To avoid being late on the meeting day, Garm’s party, Great Eagle, set off early for the northern region.
◇◇◇
The northwestern city of Cambara. It was the largest city in the territory governed by Viscount Randel, with the Abaraid Mine located in the mountains to the north.
Garm’s party decided to stay the night in Cambara, preparing for the subjugation the next day.
“We’re meeting at the mine entrance tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah. For large-scale hunts, it’s standard to gather and disband on-site.”
Van answered Sophia’s question.
The Great Eagle members were having dinner at a tavern near their inn.
Only Clay was missing, saying, “I don’t wanna eat with the old man,” and refusing to come.
“Besides Albatross, do we know what other parties are joining?”
Garm asked while eating roasted chicken legs and drinking.
“No, we don’t. Only Albatross knows the details, and they haven’t shared anything with us.”
“That’s totally Macaus messing with us!”
Garm slammed his glass onto the table, irritated.
“Whether it’s on purpose or not, it’s clear we aren’t being treated as important.”
“Ugh, that guy’s so annoying!”
“I… don’t like him either…”
Sophia and Amber both voiced their complaints.
Garm tried to tell himself it was just his imagination, but hearing them repeatedly call Macaus an “old man” stung a little.
“Either way, we’ll find out when we get there. Let’s prove that we can be useful!”
“Yeah!”
Fueled by Van’s encouragement, Garm drank even more.
But since they had to wake up early the next morning, the others quickly put a stop to that.