Lucky Coins

Before the soldier could stammer out an answer, Mitsuna spoke up while waving her hand dismissively.

"Yeah. I'll just go. The old man knows where I'm staying so just send him away when he asks."

Mitsuna turned and walked off, ignoring the staring of the small-scale group along with the single unmoving glare.

After a few steps, she looked at the stone floor, where the trapdoor previously sat.

'Closed automatically, huh.'

Glancing to the side and onto the street, without much thought, she teleported down next to the wall.

'It's about time I took a long-deserved nap.'

Waltzing through the street without a care in the world, she observed the few small food stands that she happened to pass by.

With no money to her name, Mitsuna was becoming more and more tempted to rob an entire auction house as she had done in the past.

Dismissing the temptation of gaining a grand amount of money with little to no effort, her gaze fell to the distant sign of the guild.

'I guess I can check if the treasure hunt mission was completed or not. If not then I can just give away a few bits and pieces and gain a quick coin.'

And she wondered past her lodgings towards the adventurers' guild.

A minute or two of walking and she entered the establishment, throwing her gaze over the board filled with assignments and missions of every kind, she couldn't see the treasure-hunting one anywhere.

With slight disappointment, she turned to leave before her eyes momentarily landed on a disgruntled party of adventurers. They seemed ever so slightly familiar to her. The tank of the party, or who she guessed to be the tank, was cleaning his leggings of a large amount of sand while muttering to himself.

Though the party was a good few metres away and the chitter chatter of the guild building drowned out all the noise that wasn't loud enough to be registered as yelling, Mitsuna could still hear the plate mail, armoured man.

After a quick moment, during which she browsed her memories, she remembered the group. The party of four who were all covered in sand from head to toe to slime body and to gun was the party that took the treasure-hunting quest before she could.

Slightly narrowing her eyes, she looked over and searched the table for any piece of paper. Lo and behold, it was the treasure-hunting assignment. Or quest. Or mission. Whichever the normal adventurer preferred.

As the party was sitting there covered in sand, looking disgruntled and tired, Mitsuna assumed that they failed the quest.

'They probably failed. Or maybe they succeeded by finding a different buried city with a different obelisk? Either way, I might as well go and ask the receptionist to make sure.'

Mitsuna decided after a final glance at the party. Turning back around, she walked over to a receptionist. The very same receptionist who she spoke to about the military registration.

"Hello. Has the assignment about searching for the obsidian obelisk been completed? I saw it on the board some time ago and happened to stumble upon one."

"Oh hello, miss. No, I don't think it's been completed yet, though a group of adventurers already registered to complete the assignment so unless the deadline for completion passes or they give up on the assignment, I can't really help and neither can you complete the assignment for them. Though I can recommend for you to make contact with the party. If they have yet to complete it you could share the materials and in turn share the reward for the gathered amount."

The receptionist responded professionally as he turned towards the group of adventurers on the other side of the guild building.

"In fact, the party in question seems to be the one sitting over there."

The receptionist turned back towards Mitsuna.

"Would you like me to introduce you or would you like to do so yourself?"

The receptionist asked with a polite smile.

'Actually, I'd rather wait until they give up so I can get the full reward myself...'

Mitsuna glanced at the party for a moment.

'They don't look like they'll be giving up today or the day after...'

Looking back at the receptionist, Mitsuna asked the most important question.

"What was the reward for the assignment?"

The receptionist kept his smile as he thought for a moment.

"It depends on the amount of the requested material you have gathered, miss. Considering the one who put up the request and the rarity of the materials, half a kilogram of each could get you anywhere from two to three platinum. More than enough to live lavishly for a few months even if the reward is split 50/50."

The receptionist spoke as he returned his gaze to Mitsuna and made eye contact, his eyes not wandering anywhere below her face.

"If the reward is in platinum then it should be fine. I'll go negotiate a bit then. Thanks."

Mitsuna said as she turned and left with a small wave.

"Of course. I will be waiting for good news, miss."

The receptionist answered with a business smile as he turned to talk to the next adventurer in line.

Mitsuna looked at the party of four. A slime mage with a bazooka, a man with a sword and shotgun along with full plate mail, a slime in dark-coloured leather armour and multiple belts filled with knives and a woman wearing light-coloured leather armour with two revolvers hanging from her hips and a strange cross necklace around her neck.

'I hope they're not the annoying type.'

...

Brandy, the 'priest' of the party named Sandstone, a woman with long platinum blonde coloured hair wearing white and light-grey leather armour. A small cross from the Northern Continents church sat around her neck just as unmovingly as the two silver revolvers that sat on either side of her hips.

Brandy was looking at Tameran, the 'paladin' of the party cleaning his armour of sand as thoroughly as he could. The colour of the man's armour was exactly the same as the sand in the desert, how he could find the small bits of sand on said armour was a mystery. He had hair and eyes coloured dark brown and his skin was slightly tanned. Although he looked disgruntled at the moment, Brandy could tell that her friend here was just disappointed in himself for causing the group to retreat from the desert today. On the table with the same colour scheme as his armour sat Tameran's shotgun and longsword, cleaned and polished.

Next to Brandy sat Oberon, a slime who disliked the use of guns and preferred a more silent method of attack. The slime that formed his body was coloured light brown as if he was tanned. Dark grey and light brown leather armour protected him as five leather belts each holding multiple knives and daggers further protected his armour. Oberon was, again, counting over his collection of knives to make sure they were all there.

Back next to Tameran, there was Mizly. A slime mage with a disposition to fire and explosions. She wore attire suitable for mages yet the bazooka that she always carried around differentiated her from all the other living mages. Mizly called the huge rocket launcher, that was almost always strapped to her back, her 'wand' and was her main weapon on the battlefield. She was currently sitting there with her 'wand' on her lap motionless.

The average level of the party was in the low 200s. Brandy herself believed that the party could quite easily make it past 300 and save up enough money for a lavish retirement in less than ten years. Each member of the party was a precious friend and currently her ragtag party was facing a difficult assignment.

Yet again they could not find head or tail of anything regarding the Obsidian Obelisk that their assignment mentioned. It was proving more and more difficult with each passing day and if they were to give up on the assignment, they would be set back by quite a bit.

With the tempting reward of platinum at their fingertips, the group was determined to find the damn stupid crystals and move on with their life after an expensive night out drinking.

Yet their search was fruitless. They had little time left until the deadline. A few days at most.

Brandy could feel the anxiousness and stress increasing by the day. Oberon and Mizly were troubled beyond belief even if they couldn't show their emotions well. Tameran was standing on the edge of despair and madness, though he hid it really well.

Brandy watched on as Tameran finished cleaning his leggings and placed them down next to the rest of his armour.

After doing so, he glanced behind him only to quickly look away, leaning onto the table as he whispered to the group.

"Hei hei. That cute girl with the blue hair has been glancing this way for a while now."

Tameran said with the slightest of grins.

Glancing behind Tameran, Brandy could see a young girl with baby blue hair at the receptionist. The girl in question wore a short-sleeved white shirt that wasn't buttoned up all the way, revealing a little too much skin along with a pair of glasses and long black jeans. Her face wasn't quite visible to her.

Most surrounding men in the guild building took periotic glances at her, seemingly 'appraising' her looks and body. Brandy was quite put off by that behaviour.

Before Brandy could comment on anything, Tameran spoke again.

"Think she's looking at me? Checking me out? I'm not that bad looking after all."

Brandy sighed as she leaned onto the table and rested her head on her hands.

"I doubt it. The last time a girl was seemingly 'interested' in you it was a prostitute looking for coin."

Brandy commented while waving Tameran off before speaking again.

"There's more of a chance for a girl to be checking out Oberon, Mizly or even me than you."

Brandy said as she took another glance at the girl in front of the reception desk.

"Now that just isn't true. And Crystal was no 'prostitute'!"

Tameran spoke to her, being completely serious.

Brandy wasn't quite listening to the man's rant, instead observing how the receptionist looked their way for a moment before the girl in question imitated the movement, looking straight at the group.

Brandy could now see her face.

"Oh wow. Yeah, there's no way in heaven or hell that she has an interest in you."

"I must agree with Brandy."

Oberon agreed as he had stolen a glance at the girl in question as well.

"Don't do me like that Oberon!"

The blue-haired girl turned away again only to ask the receptionist something that Brandy couldn't make out.

"Well, she definitely isn't talking about Tameran the hornball but she seems to be asking something about us."

Brandy commented as she turned back towards the group.

Mizly, who had by now also seen the girl who had suddenly become the topic of the conversation, spoke up.

"I know her."

"You do? What's her name? Where's she from? Single?"

Tameran asked, instantly interested in what his party member knew.

"I don't know. She only asked me for directions once."

"Aww man. So you don't know her. Bummer."

Tameran sat back down, deflated.

"Get over it. You wouldn't have had a chance even if you knew her from another life, let's be honest here."

Brandy poured the cold hard truth on Tameran as she fidgeted with the cross hanging from her neck.

"Brandy speaks the truth."

"I must agree with Brandy."

Both Mizly and Oberon agreed with Brandy's statement. Tameran felt another two daggers pierce his heart.

"Sometimes I wonder why I'm even friends with you guys."

"Tameran is helpful on the battlefield."

Mizly spoke nonchalantly.

Tameran couldn't help but feel another dagger stab at his already broken heart.

"And here I thought that at least Mizly liked me as a friend..."

"Back to the topic now, tomorrow we should search further North. The Obelisk has to be somewhere around that region considering we-"

Brandy was suddenly interrupted as one of the six chairs around their table was pulled out and a familiar looking baby-blue-haired girl came into view.

"I'd recommend going North-West instead."

The bell-like voice from the girl sounded out as she sat down a second later with a polite "Excuse me."

Hiding behind the pair of glasses were a pair of gem-like, piercing silver, almost entirely white, eyes that glistened in a golden hue every now and then.

The girl sat between Oberon and Tameran. Though it seemed to Tameran that the girl sat next to only him as electricity ran through his body and he lit up with confidence and happiness unlike a few moments prior.

"Nice to meet you, Sandstone."

The girl addressed the party.

"My name is Mitsuna, I heard you took a request about an Obsidian Obelisk?"

[Author note: Gods above. I took a glance at the outline of the plot and story that I finetuned at the end of last year or so since I have time now with this broken knee and all. At this point, the story has barely been completed by 5% in total. Maybe more, maybe less. I hope I can pick up speed and at least finish it before college ends but I honestly don't know.

So, to all the supporters, thanks as always and you'll probably have to deal with at least another year or three or four or more of chapter updates, my terrible update schedule and my randomly timed ramblings.

The story is longer than I remember...

Anyways, hope you have a good one today and if ya don't then that's okay, since there's always tomorrow and the next day.

-Author<3]