CHAPTER 76: OH? IS THAT IT?

"That would be it. Thank you for your service," The masked association member saluted to Izzy before walking away towards the rest of his group.

These people, these masked individuals were special forces of the association that patrolled the various floors of the tower in order to take care of individuals such as these criminals.

They not only took care of the people causing trouble, but in case players faced various complications regarding the monsters or anomalies on the floors, they were also instructed to contact them.

"Please leave the tower immediately and seek clinical support. We will report about you all." The masked individual nodded at the group of six and the six of them nodded at the officer immediately.

It was obvious the experience had been traumatic for all of them. As they returned to their states in various countries of various continents that they were from, the association there was going to look after them.

Since they turned in these criminals, they were going to be given special attention for the time being. And since Izzy and KiRA weren’t directly involved with the incident, they weren’t going to be interrogated or anything.

Since they were a [Rank-6] and [Rank-7] pair, the restrictions on them were much looser compared to the rest of them.

"Farewell then." With the three criminals locked inside a magical barrier, the association squad took them away, leaving the party and the duo alone.

The party, relieved to lose the attention of the association people that was much more intimidating than Izzy’s presence, walked up to the two of them.

They seemed to be hesitating for some reason. The two of them had helped them but what they gave them clearly seemed inappropriate to the entire group.

"Ummm!" She knew it wasn’t her decision to make, but Lia spoke up and first looked at her group.

The group instantly understood what she wanted to do when she reacted like that, so all of them nodded at her with certainty.

"Go ahead." With their captain’s permission, the girl didn’t hesitate any more and put the large backpack on her back.

The backpack that seemed like any other backpack that the porters carried was not what it looked like.

-Oooooooong!

The backpack turned into a cloth, and various items appeared on this cloth.

"Please... you can have anything from here. We collected them earlier!" She was still shy around the two of them.

In her eyes, both of them were like some kind of heroes. They were also high ranking players from what they got to know from the association people.

Izzy being a [Rank-7] most certainly surprised them since even their captain, the highest rank among them, was a [Rank-5].

She looked up to them, and since they had saved them, and since they were good people, she did not hesitate to show them her special skill.

"You have an interesting skill, Lia." Izzy praised the girl, smiling at her warmly.

Their intent was commendable. It should have been clear to them that the two of them weren’t normal individuals so there wouldn’t be much that they could offer them for saving them.

But they still showed them the special skill that their group’s youngest had. And for that alone, Izzy wanted them even more now.

"Hehe. It’s nothing special compared to you two~." At the end of the day, she was still a young girl.

She liked being praised by this cool, strong, pretty big sister.

"Hmmm... but then again, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything interesting here, Lia." Izzy could tell just from the look of the monster corpses, the herbs that Lia had gathered with her skill, and the minerals and shiny things that they had gathered weren’t all that interesting.

Some of them were herbs, and some of the shiny ores were low-grade metals containing Mana. The monster bodies were of no use to them either.

There were relatively a lot of interesting things here, but none that caught Izzy’s attention.

"Kai?" She looked beside her, at KiRA, but even he seemed unimpressed by the loot.

The herbs that she had were something he would purchase from her but even they wouldn’t be worth all that much.

’She has an interesting skill but she doesn’t yet understand how to use it.’

It was the same as Chiika. They had skills that were far more diverse than what they were using it for.

’If only she starts learning about the herbs and their effects, she could pinpoint any herb she wanted in a field.’

The other skill she had fell into the category of the rare (Gathering) skills. They were rare skills even among the acquired skills.

"The herbs are of good quality, but there’s nothing... hmmm?" KiRA had looked through the herbs with his Mana-sensitive eyes so he had only seen the Mana nature of these herbs.

However, when he looked closely at them with his Holy power, he noticed something interesting.

"This one..." Picking up a certain plant with a flower and a few leaves, he looked at the young girl with orange eyes and a round face.

"Do you remember where you got this one, Miss Lia?" She was young yet he was calling her respectfully, something the young girl found flustering.

But she still nodded at the cool doctor.

"I know! It was up on a small hill to the north. There was a small bird nest beside the only tree in that open area. It’s a pretty place!" She made a brief description of the place, and KiRA nodded immediately.

"The bluebirds, right? You can see a big tree on the eastern side from there." He recalled, looking at the girl for confirmation.

"Right! That’s the place! We found that flower there! Ah, do you want this one, big brother?"

She knew this was something precious. She could feel this was different from the rest of the herbs she had collected but she wouldn’t hesitate if he asked for it.

He saved their captain, this much was the least she could do for him.

"Haha, no no. I will not be taking this. However, you have a good eye for these things, little Lia." He praised the young girl as well and placed the branch back.

He wasn’t interested in the branch itself, but the residual energy that was clinging to it.

"You helped us big time, really." Thanks to this, he knew where to look now.

She had just made their work easier. It may not be the exact location but they knew which direction to search now.

"Oh! I’m glad we were of help!" It was sad that they didn’t take anything but she could tell this had helped them.

The way their faces lit up when KiRA thanked her earlier was enough for her to tell that place was important to them.

The party could tell the duo was in search of something in this big forest. Well, everyone was searching for something in this big forest like they had always done in the game— trying to find the hidden treasures.

Perhaps the two of them were after something like that as well. And since they were helpful to them, the group didn’t feel like they were indebted to the two too deeply.

They were surely thankful to them and this wasn’t enough to erase the feeling, but they could at least go back and sleep happily.

"Lia, come. We should go now." They had received enough from the two. If they lingered around longer, they would only be a burden to them.

So the captain decided to say his farewell to their savior. However, before they did that, Izzy walked up to the group with Lia.

"I know this is late but I’m Isah, and I have just created a Guild called Trailblaze." Izzy reintroduced herself, surprising the group with a humble guild card.

"We aren’t a big corporation or anything, most of our members are mostly people from our neighborhood and ones that we took care of after the tutorial." The Guild was not like the big guilds that might have approached the group after their player registrations as well.

"I know you all are a group and live in different states. This is my first time doing something like this as well but, if you would like, I would really like to welcome all of you to join me, join us as the first proper recruits."

Their party was more than qualified enough to be part of their guild. There weren’t any strict criteria for the initial recruitment anyway.

"Oh! We won’t restrict your movements or anything. I’m not looking for corporate slaves but those who would like to adventure together in this tower. People who actually like the journey rather than the floor quests."

They might not want to join them, but she was at least going to keep in touch with them in case they ever changed their mind about it.

"That..." The captain looked at the party.

He was unsure about it, just like the female swordsman. But Lia had stars in her eyes right now.

She wanted to be part of this guild, and so did the rest of them.

"I see." It was obvious to the mage captain what his party wanted. "You can expect a positive answer from us soon... though before that, we would like to look through the contract."

The captain didn’t just have strong mental fortitude and will to push his body’s limits, he also seemed to be a smart lad.

"Sure~! You can look forward to that then~." But Izzy didn’t have to worry about that.

She wasn’t the one in charge of the paperwork and negotiations. It was her dear darling.

He was simply too good with these things so it was all going to be in his hands.

"You will be in good hands, rest assured." Izzy ended up saying that out loud, but the group was too busy celebrating their new achievement.

They were happy.

They were going to be the first of Trailblaze members. As well as the first (Tower party) of the guild.

There would be more in the future, but this was the start for them.

A start that would mark the beginning of an epic adventure for the (Sargent’s Party).