Chapter 19 - A request

"No come back! I need help fighting the dragon!" Said the grown man as he clinged to the little girl's legs as she tried to leave his ship. Marion slowly strode away as the man slowly hindered her movement.

I could only sighed in exhaustion as I watched this scene. While the payment that he offered sounds good. The risk that the job had is something that is can't be ignored. I mean, of course It's gonna be dangerous as hell. Ex-Machina sounds like something that is out of a RPG game final boss, and we goin up against it?

"Maybe we should try to help out a little?" I told Marion.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, at least we're here to pick up some cargo right? We could do that."

"Are you sure I can't recruit you to the great Ex-Machina battle?"

"No, I'm pretty sure that fighting against a mechanical dragon is something that is out of our combat range."

"Are you sure there's plenty of loot from that dragon's trove!"

"Hmm… loot you say?"

"Yes! You're a hunter right? Cases are some of the treasures that is hidden by that dragon! Whether it's case containing weapons, medicines, or techs that is only some example of what that is hidden by that dragon."

"Wait a minute, cases? Why would the dragon have something like those?"

"This is only a hypothesis, but the dragon's mind matrix is emulating what a dragon from the old legends are doing, and in this case it collecting treasures from various sources."

"Maybe this is something that we should look into." I said to the shorter girl.

"Ehh… Are you sure? This sounds like something that is out of our paygrade." She answered to me as she crossed her arms.

"Hey, as a hunter this is something that we have to do, having a lead and not following on it? The guys would look at us disapprovingly if we skipped out on this." I replied back to the girl. Of course what I just say is something that I pulled out of my ass. If Johnny or Pathfinder were here I'm sure that they would try to dissuade me from following the old man in his hunt for the dragon, but as always I can't ignore the call for a case.

"Well if you say so…" she answered unsure.

Man, why is her personality suddenly become this negative? According to the master's follow up information, her previous personality when we found her was something of a blank state and sometimes people, resurrected people like her would pick up the traits of people around her. I wonder who did she spent her time with for her to be like this.

Oh right, it was me.

"Thank you so much! I'll make sure you're properly paid for this, I'll guarantee it!" said the older man as he stood up from clinging to marion's legs.

"So, for now what should we do?"

"For now please pick up the cargo first, they contain ammunition that we'll need for the hunt." I then began to pick up some of the smaller boxes whilst Marion took the bigger box.

"Speaking of which, where's the other people of your crew?" I asked the captain of the ship.

"Gone, they left when I mentioned that I were going to hunt down Ex-Machina." He answered as he crossed his arms.

"Yeah, let's go home." I said to Marion as I dropped the box and it dropped to the ground with a thud.

"Good Idea." She dropped the big box hard into the ground.

"No! Please! It's not like everyone left I still have some crew left! It's not like everyone left! We still have a chance in this!" He said to me as he clinged to my legs.

"Oh yeah? How many people we have left?"

"Err… Like ten people."

"Yeah, let's leave."

"No please! Don't leave! It's not like we're going to fight it alone! We're going in a combined fleet! Ten people is enough to help us in this ship!"

"Why'd you ask the Flagger for this anyway?" I ask him as I tried to pry him away from me.

"Well as they say, a decent hunter worth a hundred men. So I took a gamble on that."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you but I'm a newbie hunter, my resume didn't mention of having the strength of a hundred men." I answered him. "This one is a monster though." I pointed at Marion.

"Rude." She replied in a flat tone as she crossed her arms.

"Oh, that's great so then I don't have to pay you." The old man said as he continues to cling to my leg with a grin on his face.

"Ok, confirmed. We're leavling."

"No! No! No! I'm just joking! It's a little joke!"

"But really are you sure we're going to be alright?"

"Yes! It's not like we're going to fight it alone anyway, the combined fleet will help us with the battle."

"Explain to me this combined fleet."

"Of course it's a fleet of combined ships from all over the cities in Rayleh. It is organized by captain scoundrel, a legendary captain. I'm sure you heard about him."

"No actually. Like I said I'm new to this thing, and she… well she's been living under a rock this whole time." I pointed to Marion.

"Rude."

"In any case, captain scoundrel has organized more than a hundred ships in order to combat the threat. We're heading to the ravine where the dragon is holed up. With that much of ship killing that big mechanical lizard is something that is easy and with your help it's going to be much easier."

"Haaa… very well.. .we accept the job." I tell the captain with a sigh. I then looked towards Marion. "You okay with this?"

"Uhm, I'll follow whatever your choice is."

"Okay. Let me call Johnny and Pathfinder, they'll help us with this."

I then pulled my communicator from my pocket fiddled a bit with it and called both of them. After a few ring Johnny answered.

"Ohoy Mateys how's the cargo lifting?"

"We haven't even lifted any cargo yet." I answered him ignoring his pirate accent.

"Oh… well, what's the matter?"

"The job is kinda a bust. Need some help over here, you with pathfinder?"

"Ouch that sucks… I'm with pathfinder but we can't help you out."

"What? Why?"

"After you left, seeing your dedication for the craft of being a case hunter we also took a job and it led us to map some part of a new founded ruins."

"Damn… Guess we're on this alone."

"Sorry about this yeah, I'll make it up to you latter."

"Nah it's alright, seeya leter."

"Alright." The call then ended.

I looked towards Marion and she looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"We're on this alone for now."

"Oh…" she replied dejectedly.

"Guess we're the only hunter that's going to help you with this old man."

"It's alright, the upfront fee that I paid only cover the expenses of two hunters anyway."

Damn, I can only hope that nothing troublesome come out of this situation