Chapter 24: Seeing Ya'er Again

"Professional mentor? Please wait a moment."

Hearing this, the young woman rose from the counter and walked to the back to ask the others.

Professional mentors were a welfare policy offered by the guild, allowing individuals to receive instruction from official professionals for a relatively low fee. It was one of the most accessible paths for ordinary people to grasp transcendent power. However, because of the high number of applicants, these mentors taught in large groups, and the quality of instruction was often questionable, depending entirely on the individual's own aptitude.

Before long, the young woman returned and said to Lis, "The guild currently has mentors available for Mages, Warriors, and Hunters. The Assassin mentor is away handling a commission and is not in the guild hall."

Lis frowned. His goal was to learn dagger techniques from the Assassin mentor. With the mentor absent, did he have to wait indefinitely?

Seeing Lis frowning in silence, the young woman assumed he was deliberating over which mentor to choose and suggested, "I suggest you start with the Warrior or Hunter mentors. Although there are fewer Mages and they hold higher status, very few people have the talent for magic..."

She paused, then added, "Besides, a single session with a Mage mentor costs 10 gold coins—ten times the price of the others!"

Whoa!

Lis hadn't expected Mage mentors to be so lucrative. After all, in his previous life, he hadn't become a Mage through this method!

Ten gold coins per person, ten people per training session, ten sessions a week... that would be 1,000 gold coins a week!

Thinking of the three hundred gold coins he had left in his ring, which he had asked Joyce to retrieve last time, Lis's eyes practically turned into the shape of gold coins (✧∇✧)!

Although Lis knew the math couldn't possibly be that simple—the reality would be far less ideal, with maybe a hundred gold coins a week at most, and it would consume a significant amount of time—he still had to exercise immense willpower to suppress the urge to blurt out an offer to become a Mage mentor himself. After all, the job was incredibly time-consuming, and he assumed most of the earnings would have to be turned over to the guild. Besides, unlike the players of his past life, he wasn't desperate for resources.

But the problem remained: what was he to do about the training for his final weapon?

Just as Lis was feeling troubled, a rather sleazy voice came from behind him.

"Heh heh, little brother, are you looking for a professional mentor?"

Lis turned to see a man dressed in standard mercenary gear, whose appearance was even sleazier than his voice, standing behind him, rubbing his hands together with a grin.

***

The man's rather abstract appearance caused Lis some physical discomfort. He took two steps back and unleashed his triple-rejection: "No, not interested, thanks (get lost)!"

"Hey now, little brother, don't be so quick to refuse! Look, this is my big brother Albert. He's on the verge of breaking through to become a Silver-rank Warrior!"

"Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Sign up now for one-on-one coaching with my brother for only 5 gold, and I guarantee you'll become a transcendent warrior!"

Right behind the sleazy man, the one who was apparently named Albert was posing and flexing the muscles on his arms.

Before Lis could react, the young woman behind the counter said coldly, "Sere, Albert, you two dare to scam people here again? If you don't leave, I'll have the guards throw you both out!"

To prevent mercenaries from getting drunk and causing trouble on the premises, the Mercenary Guild employed a considerable security force.

"No, no, we're leaving, we're leaving! Don't be angry, Miss Liyah."

Before he finished speaking, the two scurried away from the mercenary hall. They felt quite puzzled; Liyah, who usually didn't concern herself with such matters, had never stopped them so directly before. They were just trying to earn a few extra gold coins, and they would have actually taught something, after all.

"Hmph!" Liyah gave a soft snort as she watched them scurry off.

These two were always here swindling novice mercenaries into spending more money for professional skills, and this time they had the audacity to try it right in front of her. Furthermore, those two idiots might be too dim-witted to notice, but how could she—a receptionist who interacted with hundreds of people a day—fail to see the truth?

Could the young man named Lis standing before her possibly be an ordinary person?

Although he was wearing plain cotton clothes, they were impeccably clean and well-maintained. His face bore no signs of exposure to the elements, and his skin was so fine it made even her envious. Most importantly, the ring the boy wore on his finger was clearly a precious storage ring, and of a high grade at that!

*Is he just another young master from some house out to experience the mercenary life?*

Lis didn't know the complex thoughts swirling in Liyah's mind, so he said with a hint of gratitude, "Miss Liyah, thank you for just now."

"It's nothing, Mr. Lis. Have you decided which professional mentor you'd like to learn from?"

"Not yet," Lis said, hesitating. "I wanted to learn professional knowledge regarding Assassins, but the mentor isn't here. Miss Liyah, do you have any other Assassin professionals you could recommend?"

"Assassins, huh? Very few people choose that transcendent profession. Let me think..."

Just as Liyah was recalling if any other Assassin professionals in the guild were currently recruiting students, another voice rang out from not far away.

"Lis!"

The surprised voice made Lis freeze. He hadn't expected anyone here to recognize him, and the voice sounded somewhat familiar.

*Clack, clack, clack~*

The crisp sound of leather boots hitting the floor approached, and a familiar face popped out from the crowd of mercenaries.

Yael!

The spirited girl he had met at the Mola family banquet. He hadn't expected to run into her here.

"Hello, Yael, I didn't expect to run into you again so soon!" Lis said with a smile, raising his hand to greet her.

"Hey! I just felt a familiar presence around here, and it really was you!" Yael looked at Lis with her magnificent grey-purple eyes, her expression filled with surprise.

Lis took a good look at her. Unlike their last meeting, the girl wasn't wearing a gorgeous evening gown. Instead, she was dressed in simple, practical brown leather armor that tightly wrapped around her lithe figure, with only her fair, slender arms and calves exposed. A black longsword was strapped to her back, and her fiery red hair was casually tied into a bun at the back of her head, with a few loose strands framing her face, giving her a playful and cute appearance.

"What are you looking at? What are you looking at?" Seeing that Lis didn't respond, Yael raised her fair wrist and waved it in front of his eyes.

"Nothing. I'm here to register as a mercenary. What about you, Yael?" Lis smiled and said.

"Silly, you can tell just by looking at what I'm wearing. I've been a mercenary for a long time."

Lis wasn't too surprised by Yael's status as a mercenary; after all, he had realized last time that the girl was no delicate flower, and had long since mastered transcendent power to become an official professional.

Liyah, standing to the side, said respectfully, "Miss Yael is the most talented person in our Mercenary Guild in the last decade. In just one year, she has promoted from a novice mercenary to a Gold-rank mercenary."

Lis was quite shocked by this. A Gold-rank mercenary was no simple role, especially one who could achieve such a rank within a single year; this wasn't something that could be satisfied just by completing a multitude of simple tasks.

This meant Yael had completed a significant number of high-level subjugation missions and commissions on her own! And hearing Liyah's tone, it was clear Yael's strength was sufficient to handle high-level tasks; she wasn't just tagging along with a group.

With that kind of strength?

Could it be that Yael... was a high-level professional?