Chapter 25: Enlisting Help

Somehow, one way or another, they were suddenly back to the Adventurers Guild courtesy to the man who calls himself Goblin Hunter forcefully dragging them here. Currently, they were seated in one of the tables on the second-floor pub area of the guild. A waitress slowly approached their table while bringing over drinks that were put on a tray.

"Here you go fellas, and young lady." She singled Ars out by looking to her with a smile. "Four different drinks for four unique individuals."

Goblin Hunter quickly took the drinks offered by the waitress and handed them to each of their rightful owners. Then, he said to the waitress in his iconic gruff sounding voice: "Thank you beautiful. How much is it for all of this?"

"Hmm..." The waitress placed a hand on her chin as she scanned all the drinks. "That would be two silvers and ten copper coins, please."

"I see. By the way, you guys don't have to worry about a thing since I'll be paying for these." He said and gave them a wink, or that's what Renan felt like he did. "Here you go beauty; two silvers and ten coppers."

He took the exact amount of coins out of his pocket then gave it to the waitress. She received it gladly with a smile and slightly bowed to them.

"Thank you very much for your patronage."

After that, she finally left their table with the tray she brought in her hands. Trailing her departing figure with his eyes, the man then switched back his attention to Renan and company.

"Now then, let's get down to business. Tell me all about it, of what you found and how to get there." He said to them, Renan in particular, as he clasped his hands together while not even bothering to take a sip of his drink.

But logically speaking, how would it even be possible for him to place the drink in his mouth when he was still wearing a helmet, not to mention they were currently indoors. This man must literally be crazy and has a screw loose somewhere in his head. Nevertheless, Renan had to give him an answer lest this conversation will go absolutely nowhere.

Taking a deep breath and organizing his thoughts, he steadily said to the man while looking him straight in the eyes: "First thing that happened was me and Miss Ars here, we were exploring the outer regions of the Dark Forest, scouring the area for herbs, fruits, and medicinal plants. But suddenly, out of nowhere, a group of adventurers led a boss-type monster to our location. We ran while simultaneously fighting the group off before ultimately escaping there, and it was then that we chanced upon a goblin pack dragging a sack on the ground."

Renan took a pause here to let the man sitting across from him digest the words he just said. Meanwhile, he clutched the cold drink in his hand and emptied out half its contents with merely one swig. At the end of it, he let loose a satisfied sigh from his cool lips before placing the drink back down.

"Thanks for the free drinks by the way." Renan thanked the man out of the blue.

"Don't mention it. Anyway, you were saying?"

"Right. So, upon seeing those goblins, I decided on a whim to follow them. And basically, you already know what happened next—they unknowingly guided us right back to their secret base."

When the man heard what the youth told him, his eyes began to gleam fervently. And then, like he was completely out of his mind, he started to laugh hysterically to himself as his shoulders violently shook in-rhythm to his uproarious display. The whole room instantly quieted down for a second, as they stated bewilderedly at this strange person wearing a full hunk of armor. When he was finally done laughing, he momentarily panted for air as if he was out of breath.

"Haaa… Whew~ Forgive me for suddenly showing such impulsive excitement. I just can't help myself when we're on the topic of goblins. I really love hunting and slaying those disgusting and vile goooooblins…! Dyeing their repulsive blood with my sword! HAHAHA!"

By the end of his sentence, he erupted in raging laughter once again, but this time no one from the customers turned their heads to look at him a second time. Meanwhile, Renan and his party just sat there at the table with weird expressions on their faces, not knowing how to describe what they currently felt like.

Eventually, Alec couldn't take it anymore and sternly said to the man: "Look dude, if you're an insane guy then fine, be that way. But I really don't want you dragging us into your antics and lumping us together with you. So if you have anything important to say just say it already, or we'll be taking our leave now."

Hearing Alec's sharp words and the way he said it in an unfriendly manner, the man hurriedly tried to compose himself while straightening his sitting posture. Holding both of his hands up, the man gestured to them with a placating tone.

"Woah, easy there soldier. I was just about to get to that part." Then, in all seriousness, he said to them, "Would you fellow adventurers like to sell me this information? Because I'll absolutely make it your while."

"What's in it for us then?" Ars unexpectedly cut in for the obvious question.

"Hmm… How does 15 silvers sound?"

"I'm sorry, but that won't do." Renan promptly shook his head at his offer. "From my estimates, we'll earn at least 20 silver coins selling this info to the Adventurers Guild. Take note that this isn't any normal place we're talking about here, it's a goblin hideout, which means there could be a ton of loot there."

Listening to him until he was finished saying what he wanted to say, the man also shook his head accordingly. "You didn't let me finish. I didn't mean merely 15 silvers, as I was going to say 15 silvers for each of you, which brings the total to 45 silvers. So, what do you say?"

"I still refuse."

"...What?! Why would you even think of refusing this great offer!? Do you seriously want to sell this information to the guild for whatever reason? Or do you think that your low-level party can conquer that goblin nest which, mind you, is not possible in the slightest! You would need at the minimum one or two E-rank adventurers to even infiltrate that place!"

He rambled on and on, but Renan put a hand up to stop him and coolly said: "You also didn't let me finish. I refuse that offer because I have another idea that might satisfy both our interests."

As expected, the man instantly withdrew some of his leaking ire upon meeting with those words. Exhaling out a huge sigh of relief, the man stared intently at Renan and replied: "Okay then, I'm all ears."

Renan let out a happy smile while clasping his hands together on the table and leaning forward. "This is what I propose, you won't have to pay us anything; not a single dime or penny from your pocket. But instead, I want you to help us conquer that base, and then we divide the loot amongst ourselves twenty-five percent for each person."

"Hah! Aren't I at the disadvantage here? You lot are all from the same party, and even though your numbers are greater than myself I'll be doing all the work no doubt. Wouldn't it make sense that I have a slightly bigger share?"

"Oh? That's where you're wrong." Renan immediately narrowed his eyes into crescents while happily saying, "I'm the one with the knowledge of this goblin hideout's location. And if you don't like it, I could always find another E-rank adventurer to carry us through the whole thing. Additionally, we could also wait for our levels to reach the required cap before challenging it."

"Hohoho… I see that you're no fool, that's great to hear. But finding another adventurer won't be necessary. Besides, as I said, you would need a really skillful E-rank adventurer or you would have to have two of them. But you're in luck my boy because I happen to hunt goblins as the main specialty of my job." The man hit his chest and proudly declared, quickly changing tunes the moment their alternative plans were mentioned.

"Well, I suppose we have a deal in our hands?" Renan remarked and reached out his hand over the table.

"We do."

The man agreed and did the same to firmly grasp hands with him and perform a handshake. Thus, their negotiation was settled, and it was finally time for Renan and Ars to revisit that goblin base they found only yesterday.

'Time to make a killing out of this…' Renan thought as a faint smile imperceptibly crept upon his lips.