Guild

"Hand over the gold or you'll die," the man said, grinning wickedly. This guy was the strongest among these thugs, and they followed his lead — he must be the leader. He had many tattoos on his face, so I'll call him Tattoo Face.

My face was calm as ever. Before me was a group of 14 adventurers. They were fewer back at the tavern. Looks like they called some backup.

"Why would I do that?"

"So you want to die that badly, punk," another one said. They surrounded me, blocking all exits. They even had some guys on the roof, preventing anyone from escaping there too.

Tattoo Face signaled one of his lackeys to attack and kill. That lackey was muscular and bulky. He was 7 feet tall and looked like a pig.

I call him Piggy.

Piggy dashed, rushing toward me. He went from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in an instant — that's what Falna does to a mortal.

If you didn't know, Falna is the blessing of the gods that unlocks a mortal's potential, giving them a chance to reach their peak or even go beyond it — breaking the limits of mortals or ascending to divinity. Throughout my journey, I've always encountered this kind of system. Each is different from the others, but its core essence is the same.

If I were to rate this Falna system, it's at least 5/10 — neither good nor bad. Based on what I observed from the adventurers around me, the Falna benefits are all the same and standardized, which means the strength displayed by an adventurer is the result of their talent and effort to reach the top.

Piggy clenched his fist and aimed a punch at my face. With minimal movement, I dodged his attack by stepping aside, grabbed his wrist, used his momentum against him, and slammed him into the ground.

Whoosh! Crunch!

Several of his ribs broke, stabbing his organs. His spine snapped in two. His head also smashed into the ground hard, breaking it like glass and damaging his brain — killing him instantly.

The scene went silent. Disbelief and anger ached on their faces.

An angry roar broke out.

"You! You killed Dex! You're gonna pay!" Another charged — this time from behind.

Their leader, Tattoo Face, released his murderous aura and signaled his lackeys to attack.

The group immediately took action, simultaneously attacking from all directions. Some threw knives and shot arrows, some cast magic, while the rest charged forward with swords and axes.

Their leader, Tattoo Face, stood by watching from behind with a wicked grin.

With precise and minimal movement, I blocked all of their attacks while counterattacking at the same time — killing them instantly.

I killed their melee combatants by taking their weapons and killing them with them. The arrows and knives were all caught with a single hand and thrown back with double the force — hitting their heads or hearts, killing them in the blink of an eye.

Using a sword that I grabbed, I caught their magic spells and threw them back with double the force, killing the mages — leaving charred and sliced-up remains.

"You're the only one left," I said with a smile.

Tattoo Face was stunned, unable to process what he saw.

His subordinates were attacking ruthlessly. Their victory was guaranteed. But when he blinked, everyone was dead — and his target stood calmly amidst his subordinates' corpses.

His face went ashen. Even he couldn't kill all of his lackeys alone — yet this guy just did it in one blink.

"Please don't kill me," Tattoo Face knelt down and begged for mercy.

I ignored his plea and cut his neck, killing him. With fire magic, I burned their corpses — leaving no evidence.

I continued to walk like nothing had happened.

An hour later.

I had arrived at the western main street where you could find the Adventurer Guild.

Adventurer Guild is one of the types of a Guild. There are many types, and the most prominent ones are the Magic Guild, Adventurer Guild, Merchant Guild, Mercenary Guild, and Academy Guild. All of the guilds are governed by the Magic Council — they all answer to them.

I don't know what the Magic Council is. From what I've gathered, they've existed since the beginning of time according to history of the

Old world and they dominate the Old World, always and never ends.

I continued to walk, deep in thought.

"So this is Pantheon — the main building of the Adventurer Guild." After a while of walking, I reached my destination.

This building gave off the same feeling as those Living Constructs. As I thought, they were really connected.

"Anastasia."

"Roger that. Start analyzing — Analyzation is complete, this building is a Living Construct model office building. It has ??? Number of floors, each having a size that surpasses ??? entirely, this is not its full scale only the visible one, the tip of an iceberg."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

While I was talking with Anastasia, someone approached me. I felt no threat, so I let her.

"Hey, handsome. Are you new here?" A girl's voice spoke.

I turned toward the voice and saw a beautiful girl with pink hair, fair skin, and a slim figure.

She wore a black uniform consisting of a black vest and pants, with a white collared long-sleeve shirt underneath, a gray bow tie, and black shoes.

She was a human and a Guild employee. I had already seen that uniform a couple of times in the city, and they said those guys were Guild employees.

I looked at myself and asked, "How did you know I was new here? Did something give it away?"

The pink-haired beauty giggled. "You're saying it all — it screams that you just arrived here. Most people who've lived here for a long time don't stare at the Pantheon that long, especially with that kind of amazement."

"Is that so? I'm John Alver."

"I'm Misha Flott."

Miss Flott led me to the Guild's main building — Pantheon.

We chatted along the way, getting to know each other more. She was easy to talk to and friendly. Many people looked at us with wide eyes. Some even had hostility — no, not at us, only at me. They must be her suitors — and there were a lot. I already counted a hundred in the crowd.

'Is she this famous here?' I asked inwardly.

I didn't notice that I'd stopped walking. Miss Flott noticed and responded by taking my arm, hugging it into her chest and dragging me toward the Guild — ignoring the gazes around us.