Ambush

"Now onto the smaller news. The two of us are creating the SoulCaller guild. If there are any more questions go ahead and ask them."

After all of what he just said, nobody cared about the guild announcement itself. He couldn't complain since it was the plan all along.

The crowd implored into chaos, and the journalists scrambled their equipment and drove off to write a story about it. The ones who held a live broadcast were calling their bosses what to do next.

"I think it worked way better than expected."

Nyssa whispered that she was also shocked since he hadn't told her about any of this, but judging based on his previous actions, it wasn't that surprising.

They excused themselves using the whole commotion. On their way out, Leo recalled the bats and hid the staff.

'If only there was a way to make them float... they are so heavy for no reason.'

"We are going to the bus stop Nyssa, our next goal is the mountain range."

He stretched the hand that held it, hearing his joints pop.

"Hey, kid."

As they were about to turn to the bust stop after passing the gates outside, they were stopped by a familiar person.

"Clint! What are you doing here?"

Leo shook his hand with a smirk on his face.

[Mind Archive]

[Clint Westwood age 27]

[Level 47]

[10 723/121 637 XP]

[Class: Marksman]

[Strength: 30 (+6)]

[Can't get more information due to the difference in level]

"All of the kids back at the HQ told me to let them work. So I came to see what you were up to. You are coming with me, we gotta celebrate that!"

Clint exclaimed with a cheeky grin on his face. He could spot the eye bags under the summoner's eyes but decided to ignore them.

"What about us mister?"

Gloppy tugged on the S-class climbers jeans. To answer him, he crouched and patted him on the head.

"Friends of Leo are friends of mine! Now let's go."

During their walk towards Explorer's Guild, Leo could see that Nyssa was very anxious about it.

"Something wrong? You seem a bit anxious."

"Of course I am anxious! We just got invited by THE Clint Westwood of the Explorer's Guild! How can you be so calm?"

She was biting her fingers and scratching her cheeks from the stress. 

"That's more of a response I'm used to."

The marksman sighed with an unhappy expression on his face. All of them went silent after that, all but Gloppy that is, who kept asking about everything around them.

"Quiet a companion you got there, I assume it's also part of your skill."

He tried to pick up the conversation somehow and cheer the mood. After all who would want to celebrate with an aftertaste of a sour conversation?

Leo picked up on the fact and spent the time they walked explaining his skill to an extent.

"Yes, it's a Slime King bound to my staff."

***

Headquarters of the Explorer's Guild were visible at the horizon by the time they finished talking about Leo's class.

Even from all the way there, they saw a line of people waiting to have a chance to enter. 

"Looks like you are pretty busy..."

"Yeah, because it was so long since the last time we cleared a floor it's been a while without having a lot of people to recruit. Now that we did there are hundreds of climbers trying to join our ranks."

They had to sneakily enter from the backside to dodge the crowd. Once inside the trio of guests were met with an unimaginable sight.

Clank clank

Chop chop

Woosh

Tens of Unbound worked processing and creating materials on the first floor, filling all of it with loud sounds related to their work.

"Welcome back boss!"

All of them shouted in unison at Clint's arrival. They cheered to see him back and kept chattering with him.

He was answering them like they were his family with a wide grin on his face. After a few minutes, he finally finished conversing with them, a cheerful grin on his face.

"Sorry guys, it took a while to finish talking with them. Come this way."

"You seem pretty close to your workers Mister Westwood."

Nyssa worked up the courage to speak up to him while still being in shock at the whole ordeal.

"I know all of the people here for most of my life. Also, just Clint is fine."

Clint replied while touring them around. When they got to the highest floor they saw a hurricane of chaos.

"Ron I told you not to group these two!"

"But Monika said..."

"Do you think I care what she said!? Why can't you be at least half as smart as Aaron?"

The whole floor was in even more mess than the lowest one, but this time it looked way more unorganized as 9 of the 10 S-ranks in the Guild were running around and stamping different documents.

"Hi, guys. Don't mind me, just passing through."

Sylvaine spotted him in the chaos and ran up to him. She handed a pile of already signed files to him.

"If you are back, take these and put them in the office."

"Yes ma'am."

He lazily answered and kept going. Due to the overall situation, no one realized that he brought a few guests with him, although Gloppy's slime almost made someone land in an emergency room due to slipping on it.

Crash

"What was that!"

"Oh don't you dare shift your focus, we still have lots to do."

***

"Can we even be here Clint?"

Leo pondered as they walked into the main office of the building. It was mostly filled with bookshelves of files stacked neatly together.

"After all this is where I store most of my booze."

After making sure the documents he brought lined up, he took a step towards a mini fridge in the corner, taking a bottle of alcohol out of it and cracking it open.

He offered it to both of them but they declined, knowing they still have a lot to do today.

"Your loss kids."

Clint slowly made his way to the door behind them. Without a sound, he opened them and allowed someone else to enter.

It was Sylvaine, who looked coldly at the two in front of them. 

'At least she doesn't have her rapier out this time.'

'Only a bit, but I figured something like this would happen.'

She marched fast towards Leo, stopping only a few inches away from his face, staring deep into his eyes.

But so did he, not looking away for even a moment. Nyssa tried to walk closer to separate them but she was stopped by a hooded figure.

The chaotic sounds from before were no longer heard, they were replaced by menacing silence.

"That's not a way to treat a guest, is it?"

"It might not be, but that's the only way we could have gotten you here."

Sylvaine reached for something by her hips, not for a moment did her gaze break from him.