Five days later, Jean found himself standing outside a huge building in the fort early in the morning. He was accompanied by a group of about twenty members. Five of them were new recruits like him and the remaining were veterans.
None were in uniform of the border guards. They were all dressed in casual clothes with a brown pant and shirt. Even the armor were all different. The recruits all wore brown leather armor over their chest and arms with brown leather boots.
Few of the veterans had the same garb, while others had worn leather armor which was a bit more fancy having a few furs and etched designs. They were all armed with weapons of their choice, armored and ready to march. They were clearly all dressed as mercenaries.
The one which stood out was Jean. He wasn't dressed like others. He wore thick plate armor on top of the border guard uniform. With a helmet under his arm, sword on his hip and spear in the other hand, he stood in front of the others like he was commanding them.
Jean was feeling very excited for it was the first time he was going on a mission. Like all other teens his age, he dreamed of adventures and honor. Two days ago, when he broke through to the knight stage, he was immediately given the mission and informed about the request from his father. It was his first chance to attain the honor and prove himself to his family. So, he kept preparing and was ready and raring to go.
The building beside them had twenty stories tall and about 40 meters wide. It had a large sign which read "Mercenaries Association" along with a symbol of plain at its sunrise with two crossed swords which was the association's symbol. It was clearly a very busy place with a big 9 feet tall and 6 feet wide entrance.
Even early in the morning, there were groups of 3 or 4 persons entering and exiting the place, every other minute. They were all armed and armored. There were many people near it consisting of all types, civilian, merchant, soldiers, mercenaries. Similar to Jean and their group, there were other groups who were congregating in front of it.
It was a common place where many mercenaries and merchants usually congregated before taking off for missions. This was because, it was the Mercenary Association was an organization managed by one of the strongest group of people in the planet. Every branch of it has its own security and personnel posted in it, making it one of the most secure places. So, many used it to group and starting point.
"It had been a little more than a month since the training for recruits started and now we already are taking the newbies alongside us for a mission," grumbled one of the members in the group. He was about 6 feet tall with a bald head rough face and long nose with braided beard and mustache.
"It is what it is Alvarez," said Syam. He was leading the entire group. "We need to adapt according to the times. It isn't like you have never done unexpected things on the job before."
"I know. I just hate babysitting," said the man. "Who is remaining?"
"Raban," said Syam.
"Why did the old guy come out of retirement?" asked the man.
"You ask him," said Syam pointing to a row of six horse drawn stagecoaches that were coming towards them on the road. All the six of them had a drivers seat that could seat two. The passenger cabins were made of wood padded with metal plates outside.
It also had two doors on its left and right and small openable windows on the left, right and back of the coach. There were sets of six spears fastened to the top of coach, three on either side with a latching mechanism which provided easy access to weapons as soon as they jumped out.
On the driver of the first carriage, they could see Raban and Dean seated with Dean holding the reins while Raban was checking some documents.
"I heard Dean is out of your team. What happened?" asked Alvarez.
"I promoted him. He deserves better and is getting tired out," said Syam.
"Come on. I want the truth. Why did you send him out?" asked Alvarez not believing him. Many of the hunters knew that Dean was the one who actually made plans and took charge of the team in the mission activities. So, they were very surprised to find that he was removed from the team as they believed that Dean was the core who held the team together.
"I am saying the truth. He already had enough merits to be promoted for quite sometime. I was already being selfish and held him back for long," said Syam.
"So, you are saying you grew a conscience? Do you expect me to believe that the biggest adrenaline junkie that I know of grew a conscience all of a sudden?" asked Alvarez.
Syam turned around looking at Alvarez in the eyes as he grinned with his mouth stretching to his limits. "Do you rather that I lose it again?" asked Syam.
"No. No," said Alvarez immediately as he understood that it was Syams way of warning him to let go of the topic. Alvarez immediately took off going to check on the coaches that were coming for them.
"All ready?" asked Syam looking at Raban as tge came closer.
"Yes, we are ready. Let us move to the adventurer's association. We need to register the newbies and take up the mission officially," said Raban looking at five of them. He already knew Ajax and he recently read the information about the others.
Just outside the gate, the found Dean waiting for them. He had six horse-drawn wagons waiting for them alongside a few horses. They were loading supplies and weapons on the wagons. All the wagons It had spears secured tightly to the roof at the sides which allowed them to quickly remove and use them in case of an attack.
"All ready?" asked Dean as they approached.
"Yes," replied all recruits in unison immediately. All of them were at the very least knight stage cultivators with mana cores. The only exception was Ajax. The other recruits dressed as mercenaries were Timothy, Pete, Glen and Brad. Timothy and Pete were known to Ajax before too, but Glen and Brad were just acquaintances to him. Both Brad and Glen were fire natured cultivators. Still, they knew each others styles well as the had seen other practice.
"Good, register yourself as adventurers," said Dean. "You need to show them your face and bind the badge by putting a drop of your blood on them."
"Follow me, in single file," said Raban leading them inside to the ground floor of the complex. The ground floor consisted of a large lobby with a canteen at the left. Right ahead was a large mission board and beside it were a bunch of counters were the employees. It was quite crowded, but all the different booths had clear signs above a height of 6 feet so that most would be able to identify them.
"To the far left," said Raban as he led them to a booth marked - "Registrations". It was the booth without any person near it. It had an old man with white ruffled hair. He had his eyes closed and was sleeping with his elbow on desk and hand supporting his chin. He was so deep in sleep that he was snoring.
Raban went to him and knocked on the booth hard to wake him up.
The old man slipped on his hand and fell down hitting the desk with his head.
"Oh!" said the old man rubbing his chin. "We got more young ones who want to join us," he grumbled. "You guys aware of the process?"
"They are not," said Raban to the old man. "They are in the border guard," he continued placing a document on the desk.
"Oh. Ok," said the old man as he took the document to check it.
"What is the usual process?" asked Pete.
"You will have to provide documents for your identity and then you will get a probationary badge. After that you will have to take some basic tests and then, if you pass them all, they will give a novice black iron badge which we will get now directly," explained Raban.
"We are just skipping the tests, the guard is guaranteeing our minimum capability," he continued.
"It all seems well," said the old man as he put the document away. "Five new ones, right?"
"Yes, register them into the black claw guild" said Raban as he removed his own mercenary badge and provided it to the old man.
"Instructor," said Timothy. "We have already reached knight stage, can I get a copper badge?"
"No. You are too young and barely reached knight. It is not allowed," said the old man. "People expect a certain amount of experience from coppers. So, just do some missions like everyone else and get it upgraded."
He quickly took out some badges and did some paperwork registering them into the guild which Raban mentioned before giving them to Raban
"Put a drop of your blood on the badge to bind them and keep them fixed on your chest or tied them to your arm or neck. It indicates that you are a verified adventurer to the public," said the old man as he lay his head on the desk and started snoring.
Raban immediately distributed the badges to the five of them. As Ajax took the badge, he noticed that it had the emblem of the association and is made of iron. It had a small alphanumeric code on the back. It was clearly some sort of identification system for the Adventurer's Association.
He quickly made a small nick on his finger and put a blood drop to bind it. It was the first device that he had bound using blood. He immediately noticed that the drop of blood was absorbed by the badge. It was stored some place and he could notice that it triggered some mechanism or array inside it.
"That would activate the badge," said Raban. "From now on, whenever you finish any mission, you give the proof of mission back at the association. Whenever you do so, they will check and update your reputation points and merits which will be stored in the badge. If they ever have any doubt that any badge was stolen, they can also check it using your blood. They will cross check if the blood residue stored in the badge matches your own to validate it."
"So, you need to keep it safe if you want to every use the merits that you have gained after completing the mission."
"Why are we in a guild?" asked one of the recruits.
"We are going there as mercenaries hired by Jean's family which is why we aren't wearing our uniforms. We need to be a cohesive group. So, we join a guild. It is common protocol in such cases. The border guards have arrangements with a number of guilds. They allow us to join them temporarily and we throw quite a few missions their way," explained Raban.
After that, Raban quickly led them out by the time, the rest of the guards were all ready. They have all mounted their steeds and wagons standing in two lines and are ready to depart. Syam was at mounted on a wagon at the front.
"Jean, will be in one of the middle coaches. Stay with Alvarez. He will keep you safe. I will be at the lead," yelled Syam beckoning at Jean. "Raban, you go to the back. All the cadets get into separate coaches. No two in the same coach"
Ajax followed Raban to a wagon at the end. As they reached the wagon, they found Derek, one of Syam's teammates waiting on the wagon holding the reins. "Get in we need to move fast," yelled Derek.
Ajax and Raban were in the last coach and were accompanied by four other veterans, who were quickly introduced to him by Raban. Two of them were women named Asha and Rashi who were mainly archers. They also wore scimitars on their hips. The other two were men. One sported a huge mace which was half his height. He was called Rick and the other called Remo had a curved saber on his hip.
As they boarded the wagon, the guards quickly rode out of the castle. They got out of the fort in a couple of minutes and quickly rode out. Alongside them there were other wagons and people travelling along the same path.