Raid: The Blacksmith-Chapter 43: Welcome to the Warriors Association: Part One

Chapter 43: Welcome to the Warriors Association: Part One

"Okay. First off. Raid, you know why you’re here, correct?"

"I get the gist of it at least." I answered Chadwick’s question. "I took the lives of all the party members of the Zeke Party. All including Zeke Reinhardt, a son of the Reinhardt Family. Now his dad, the Family Head wants me dead, but since you guys don’t agree with him on that matter, you’re now focusing a good chunk of your resources into protecting me."

"Exactly. You see the Reinhardt Family’s Head isn’t exactly subtle."

"Yeah...Zeke told me something similar."

"Which is why we’re gonna need you to lay low for a while. My older brother may not look it but he can handle himself so you don’t need to worry about the orphanage as of yet. And as a precaution, I’ll send some of my men there in secret. As for you, since you two are well acquainted, I’ll assign Peyton to be your personal bodyguard until this whole fiasco dies down."

"Oh no." I replied.

"Yes I know. I apologize in advance for that one." He said.

"Hey! What’s that supposed to mean!?" Peyton responded in protest.

"Ohh nothing. Nothing at all." Chadwick answered exhaustingly. It seemed like old man-Gam wasn’t the only person who made his life difficult, I really did pity him, but part of me felt like my being acquainted with Peyton wasn’t the only reason he assigned her to me. It almost felt like he just wanted her off his back for a while so he saw the perfect chance to throw her over to me and took it. My suspicions were confirmed the moment I caught a glimpse of a smirk form on his face as he quickly placed his hand over his mouth to hide it.

"That old devil! Now that I think about it, that apology of his didn’t sound sincere at all, did it? I should have expected as much. Even though he’s more mature, he’s still old man-Gam’s little brother at the end of the day."

I could only scream internally as he continued. "Keep in mind, however, all of this won’t nearly be enough to persuade Andrew to lay off on you. Which is why I have a proposal for you that just might do the trick."

"Huh?"

"A proposal?"

"Oh yes. A proposal."

"Intrigued. I’m listening."

"Alright then. What do you think about joining the Warriors Association?"

"What?" Peyton and Melissa responded in unison. Even I was surprised. I didn’t really think he’d go that far.

"Sir, are you sure about this?" Asked Melissa.

"Trust me, we also stand a lot to gain from this. Raid is a very capable Warrior. In fact, I’ve never seen a Warrior with that much potential... Isn’t that right, Peyton?" Chadwick smirked as he looked at Peyton for an answer.

"Pey?" Melissa said while also looking at Peyton, slightly confused. I was also a proud member of her clueless squad. Seriously, just what the hell where they on about?

"... He’s just really weird. That’s all I can say about him." Peyton finally replied after what felt like an eon of shared confusion.

As I was still in the middle of trying to figure out what they were going on about, Chadwick looked at me and spoke.

"Think about it, Raid." He said.

"I don’t need to." I thought.

"If you have an entire Association Branch backing you. Even a Family as powerful as the Reinhardts’ will think twice before they decide to mess with you." He continued.

"Took the words right outta my mouth." I thought.

"I’ll be honest with you. You don’t really strike me as the Guild type."

"I’m not." I replied.

"Heh. I figured." He chuckled. "So there’s nothing really stopping you then, is there? ’Cause, judging by your persona, working for the Association would be a lot more advantageous for you, wouldn’t it?"

"You’re right, it would. Okay then. I’ll join, but under three conditions."

"’Conditions’, you say. For someone who isn’t related to him by blood, you’re behaving a lot like Gam right now."

"Oh god, I hope not."

"Heh, I know what you mean. Alright, let’s hear those conditions of yours. As long as it’s within my power, I might be able to help you out."

"Okay, first off. Don’t assign me to any team or special division of any sorts. I work better alone."

"Part of me feels like you just wanna hide whatever special abilities you have that allow you to be as strong as you are, but okay, I’ll humor you. Consider it done. Next?"

"Damn, he’s smart! He figured that much from a single condition!?"

"... Okay." I continued. "Next, I don’t wanna take any orders from anyone outside this room."

"Done. Melissa, Peyton and I are now officially your only superiors. What else?" He asked with a smile.

"Well, this is progressing quite nicely. Now for the big kahuna."

"Well...as for last but not least. I want single person clearance to all Dungeons up to A-Rank."

"You’re insane. Can’t be done."

"Figured he’d say that."

"Why not?" I asked.

"You’re an F-Rank and you want something only B-Ranks and above are allowed to have. I really don’t think I need to explain exactly why I can’t meet this last condition of yours."

"Yeah but I’m stronger than a B-Rank though." I argued.

"Maybe you are, but that doesn-"

"In fact..." I interrupted. "I’m actually stronger than A-Rank."

....

The entire room went silent.

Peyton didn’t look at all surprised by what I just said.

Melissa looked like she had been insulted.

Chadwick looked at me like I was crazy. He was baffled. "Hey kid. Do you honestly believe that? You should understand why this sounds more like a joke to me than anything else. You might’ve seen Peyton do a little fighting in the Dungeon you recently cleared with her and probably thought ’Oh I can beat that.’, but allow me to be the one to tell you right now that what you saw then was nowhere near her full capabilities." He said as he finally spoke.

"I’m sure it wasn’t." I replied. "She is a hell of a she-beast after all."

"Hey-"

"But I can prove that I’m that capable." Ignoring a certain someone attempting to lash out at me, I made my declaration.

"And just how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Chadwick asked.

"How else if not a sparring match!?" I waved my arms outwards, smirking ever so arrogantly. They all widened their eyes in response, as if taken by surprise by my change in attitude. Ignoring their curious expressions, I continued. "Allow me to spar with a capable A-Rank of your choosing, and if I win, you give me what I want, deal?"

....

"Eheheheh." Chadwick started laughing, while the rest of us just looked at him confused. "HEHEHEH HAH-HAH-HAHAHAHAH! YOU REALLY ARE ALL THAT HE SAID YOU’D BE! AND HERE ON I THOUGHT HE WAS JUST TALKING OUT OF HIS ASS WHEN HE SAID I’D BE ON ONE HELL OF A RIDE WITH YOU! EVEN MORE SO WHEN I FOUND OUT YOU HAD AWAKENED AS AN F-RANK, BUT NOO! No I see it now, exactly what he meant. That look on your face. I know it well. Alright then, I’ll humor you kid. If you can last thirty minutes without tapping out, in a battle against Melissa here, then I’ll do you one better than single person clearance in A-Rank Dungeons, I’ll throw S-Rank Dungeons in the equation as well."

"...! No way! He did not just say that!"

"Sir, you can’t be serious!" Melissa objected.

I understood why. If someone as influential as a Manager allowed a lower Ranked Warrior to enter a Dungeon believed to be far beyond the Warrior’s capabilities, alone, and they died as a result, then the Manager in question would have to take responsibility, and the Branch they govern would probably have to go down with them. The Warriors Association has a sworn duty to protect all Warriors after all.

So Melissa’s objection was very much expected. Not to mention that, while she may have seen me use an A-Rank Skill proving that I’m way stronger than I let on, she knew not of my full capabilities. Unlike Peyton, who simply just laughed in response when she heard Chadwick say he’d give me single person clearance to all Dungeons up to S-Rank.

"S-Rank Dungeons. There’s a reason why I said that I wanted single person clearance to all Dungeons up to A-Rank, instead of S-Rank. They scare the shit out of me. S-Rank Dungeons. Currently the highest Ranked Dungeons that aren’t still Locked. Some S-Rank Warriors have even died in S-Rank Dungeons and it’s even said that only the Eighteen Generals and Six Emperors can afford to not take them seriously, and it’s the fact that they still do take them seriously that scares people more about these Dungeons. There’s only a little over four-hundred of them in the entire world. There were six-hundred and sixty-six of them after the First Trial. That was seventy-six years ago. In a matter of seventy-six years, we’ve only managed to clear over two-hundred of these monstrosities. That’s how dangerous they are."

"Okay then." I said in agreement. "If I can last thirty minutes in a sparring match against Melissa, you’ll allow me to be able to explore every Dungeon in the world that’s currently Unlocked. Here’s hoping you don’t go back on your word." I added with a smirk.

"You got it sport." He agreed.

"Yeah. This is good, actually it’s incredible. I might have some reserves about exploring S-Rank Dungeons now but it’s not like I wasn’t going to do that at all. It was bound to happen sooner or later so why the heck not sooner?"

"But first..." I said as I got up. "Allow me to do something I should’ve done a long time ago."

"Hm?" He said with a confused look. "What’s that?" He asked. "..." He paused as he looked at me.

I was bowing.

"Thank you for all that you’ve done for me so far, and for taking me in." I said.

"Hmm, this is odd. I highly doubt you learned manners like that from my older brother." He replied.

"You’re right, I didn’t. He was my main guardian but he wasn’t the only person raising me at that orphanage."

"I see. Makes sense. And hey, there’s no need for thanks. Blood related or not, it’s an uncle’s duty to protect of his nephew. Not to mention if I didn’t, there’s a good chance Gam would’ve had my head if something happened to his little boy on my watch." He said jestingly.

"I’m inclined to believe you on that." We shared a small laugh and I sat back down. "Guess I’ll be leeching on you from now on." I joked.

"Hah! Go right ahead!" He laughed. "What’s one more brat when I’ve got two leeching off of me already?"

The two brats in question then joined the fray in objection.

First was Melissa.

"Excuse me, sir. I’d understand if you were talking about this one, but I for one am not a leech or a brat."

Then Peyton.

"And just who do you think you’re referring to when you say ’this one’, huh?"

"Sorry? I thought that was obvious."

"You wanna go, sister!?"

"No way in hell, you’d break me in half."

They continued their bickering as a long tired sigh permeated through the entire room.

~Sigh~

"You look tired. Are you okay?" I looked at the person the sigh came from, uttering these words. It was Chadwick.

"Not really. I’m constantly having to activate my Composure Skill every time I’m around them." He answered. His right hand lightly placed on the right half of his forehead, his right elbow resting on his desk, along with the entire lower half of his left arm.

"Sounds rough."

"It is. It’s become a part of my training at this point. The Skill was F-Rank when I got it, but now it’s already reached S-Rank." He smiled faintly, it wasn’t a positive smile in the slightest sadly. Far from it unfortunately.

"When did you get it?"

"Last week."

"Yeesh."

"Yeah."

"It may not look like much to me, but that’s only because my growth rate is monstrous compared to other Warriors. In actuality, getting an F-Rank Skill to reach S-Rank would usually take years for an S-Rank Warrior. So him doing it in a week is actually an incredible feat. The only thing that sucks is that that was only made possible due to the stress these two cause for him. And I’m inclined to believe that old man-Gam might’ve had a hand in it as well. Ahh, how I truly pity this man."

"But enough about that." Reorganizing himself with expertise, like the true leader he is, he got up from his chair. "Time to get to business." He said.

"I’m sure he means the sparring match."

"But first..." He added. "We oughta get you changed into something a little more...not burnt to a crisp. Seriously. Why did you come here in that get up anyway?" He asked.

"It was my retaliation to a certain someone who basically forced me to come here." The certain someone looked to the side and started whistling as soon as I said that.

"Well, we can’t have you fighting in that. Or...literally doing anything else for that matter so, ’certain someone’, Melissa, while I get our new friend here some nice battle gear, you two prepare one of our training rooms for the sparring match, okay?"

"... Okay."

"Yes sir." Melissa responded, following Peyton, who paused at first for some...’certain’ reason. "You’ll find us in Training Room Seven." Melissa added as both girls left the office.

"Now then." Said Chadwick. "Wanna see something cool?"

"Do you even have to ask?" I replied.

"I guess not." He laughed.

He then started tapping on his table repeatedly. It had a screen the size of a tablet that looked like it was embedded on it. When he finished. The entire right wall from my side opened up like a sliding door, revealing a large variety of clothing.

"No way! You have a wardrobe in your office?!"

"I have just about everything in my office."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, heck I could even live here if I wanted to. But the house I own is way better."

"Wow. It pays to be a Manager, I see."

"You have no idea. Even most Family Heads and Guildmasters don’t have as much influence as a Manager. Now, let me see what I can get you here, since you’ll be fighting, here’s an adjustable spandex, top it off with black soldier pants and a simple grey striped long sleeve shirt. Oh and don’t worry, they’re pretty durable. It’s Magic Armor after all." He said as he took them all out from the hanging line in the wardrobe and gave them to me.

"Thanks." I replied.

"And as for footwear. These boots should do the trick." He walked across the wardrobe and found fancy brown light boots.

"Nice." I took them then entered the wardrobe as he stepped out. It was a very spacious wardrobe, enough to fit more than ten people and still have room so there was more than enough space for me to change.

While I did, my thoughts only wandered.

"I wonder what the girls are up to."