Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Rain wanted to ask what happened to them, but that probably would wound their ego. Since they wanted to prove themselves, the last thing they wanted to hear was someone looking like he was making fun of them or overly concerned.

"Yeah, it has…" Jori said while looking like he wanted to sleep for a few more hours instead of working that day.

Rain looked toward the others, and it seemed that they didn\'t want to say anything further either. That was fine with Rain. If they didn\'t want to talk, it was fine. When he thought of leaving them alone, Rain noticed Liss\'s gaze; she looked like she was silently asking for help.

"I am not good with this kind of stuff; I like to mind my own Business, you know…" Rain thought.

Rain was also the type that thinks too much about things; thanks to that, he didn\'t feel like he had the right to join their party even temporarily after this long.

"More monster hunting?" Rain asked when he saw them heading to the board.

"It is fine, Rain; you don\'t have to worry about us," Jori said. "We are finally getting the hang of these."

Jori pointed toward the weights that all of them were carrying… no wonder they looked exhausted. Now and then, they showed up and asked Rain to fix them or make them heavier, but Rain forgot that he had to make them easy to take out… aside from himself, the others couldn\'t do that.

"You either have some crazy balls, or you are too insane to fight with the weights all the time," Rain said. "No wonder you guys look so beaten."

"Ah, come on… it isn\'t that bad…" Jori said while forcing a smile.

"If you are having a hard time with monsters without humans supporting them, then it is that bad," Rain said. "I will confirm this with my own eyes today. Fighting with weights in the wrong battle might cost your lives, and it looks like the next fight might be your last, so I will judge if you guys can keep them or not."

"You are going too far, man… but if you truly want to work with us today, then I am all for it," Jori said while looking at the others, and they nodded as well. "I guess there is no point in trying too hard to refuse you just because we don\'t want to be left behind."

"Who is leaving who behind?" Rain asked. "You guys know that while I keep my weights on, I mostly work on the capital, right? You worry too much about pride and forget that it doesn\'t matter what others think of you; as long as you keep improving every day, the opinions of others are useless."

Jori didn\'t say anything after hearing that. The others looked a bit thoughtful about the same thing as well. While Rain didn\'t pay much attention to them lately, he realized that the youngest members of the organization avoided him as well. Maybe it was because the veterans greeted Rain pretty often.

They also wanted to be recognized while not associating themselves with Rain… kids sure are difficult to handle.

"Well, it is about time for them to learn that their true rivals are their current limits," Rain thought. "Let\'s make sure that they will learn this this time."

"What job should we pick this time?" Jori asked when they arrived at the board.

"I don\'t know; I haven\'t gone monster hunting in a while," Rain replied. "While they are good for reputation, finding them is a pain."

"That is because they avoid you…" Jori said while furrowing his eyebrows. "Something close to the capital will do, right?"

"No, a well-paid job is the best option," Rain said.

"Man, even though you earn so much solo, you still want more…" Jori said.

"It is a bit further south, so we will have to walk for a while, but that one seems good enough," Liss said while pointing to a certain paper. "It has been on the board for a few days as well."

Everyone looked at the paper… While the job involved monster hunting, it was more of a guarding job. A small fortress was being built in that area, and the workers wanted some guards since monsters kept attacking the construction at night and delaying things a lot. Every night, the number of monsters attacking increased, and that probably wasn\'t a coincidence.

"It is a long job… three days to go, three days to return, and one week doing the guard duty," Jori said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Are you really fine with that, Rain?"

"Yes… still, taking this much time to travel is too much," Rain said. "Do you guys have horses?"

"No, we wouldn\'t be able to use the weights well if we were moving with them," Jori replied.

"Well, in that case…" Rain said and then saw Karla approaching.

"I overheard you guys talking, and I can do something to help," Karla said. "If you need some horses or a wagon, I can help you get one, you just have to do a delivery to Tristan first. While you will lose a few hours there, you will be able to save a couple of days of traveling."

Rain was thinking of buying a wagon since he was planning to join Jori\'s party for a while, but that worked as well. It would look too suspicious if he made such an investment out of nowhere when everyone knew how fast he could move."

"That will help a lot; where can we find the wagon?" Rain asked.