The Necromancer Who Was Despised

I glanced around the tavern.

Some of the mercenaries were watching at us with interest, while others were watching us with slight nervousness.

‘If I make a move, will they stop me?’

This guy who was giving me a hard time wasn’t just some random jerk who didn’t value his own life.

‘He must be in cahoots with them.’

I guessed that it was a ploy by the existing forces to get me into trouble and then link me to this guy so they could penalize me.

If I accumulated enough penalties, my party members would also suffer, and if the situation worsened, they seemed to think they could use that as an excuse to lure my party away.

‘Are my party members really that desirable?’

Well, they were all in their 20s, and Athena was in her early 20s, while Kayla was only in her mid-20s.

With their skills at that age, it was no wonder they were so sought after.

Even nobles would covet them, so how much more so would ordinary mercenary groups?

There would also be quite a few who hated dark sorcerers, so there were plenty who might join just because they disliked me.

Athena and Kayla, who had gone upstairs to their room, must have sensed the situation with their heightened senses, because they came out with hardened expressions.

As soon as they appeared, the mercenaries who had been about to approach me again flinched at their expressions and ominous auras.

I shook my head at them, telling them not to do anything.

“… You’re going to let him say such things?”

I left the defiled food and spoke to them.

“Just endure it for two days, no, one more day.”

“Why don’t we just stay in the room?”

“You still have to eat.”

“Tell Valdur to bring it to us!”

“Well, it’s more convenient for me to come out and eat.”

If I hadn’t come out, someone could have come out to pick a fight with Baldur.

I guess you could call it the responsibility of a leader.

‘I also needed to take note of the guys who were hostile towards me.’

I had already checked the faces of everyone who was here.

The guys here are radicals, and there must be more behind them, but I need to know in advance who is likely to get in my way.

‘Once I start making rapid progress here, there will definitely be guys who will come after me.’

An incredible stroke of luck that you can’t handle sometimes turn into misfortune.

Of course, I intended to avoid such a situation, which is why I needed to know the guys who were here.

Most of them won’t act as openly as they do now because of the mercenary guild that will surround me once I start making progress, but these guys are radicals.

Fortunately, because of the memories from last time, I have a rough idea of where most of the guys belong.

‘Pathos Mercenary Corps. That guy was from Moses & Co., and wasn’t that guy from the Battlela Party?’

Right now, I’m the underdog.

But that couldn’t last forever.

That’s why I was able to laugh in the midst of all the insults and abuse.

When I didn’t react to the insults and even laughed, the insults directed at me gradually started to decrease.

A strange silence fell over the inn, and even the guy who had been insulting me with a patter of insults was hesitating.

He sneered and spat out another insult, but his previous arrogant attitude was nowhere to be found in his trembling pupils, shaking legs, and hesitant steps as he retreated.

“Innkeeper.”

“My food is dirty, so can you make me a new one?”

“Yes, sir. Hey there.”

The innkeeper spoke to the man who had spat on my food and insulted me.

“You’ll have to pay for the food. Surely you don’t think you can live in this territory while cozying up to the mercenary guild? Or do you have a hundred more?”

The man looked around in confusion.

Then a man stepped forward and spoke.

“I’ll pay for it.”

“Very well. I only need the money.”

I looked at the man who had stepped forward.

‘So that’s the guy who was going to get involved.’

Unfortunately, I didn’t know him.

That means he’s not one of the guys who was active at the very bottom… .

‘From the very beginning, a fairly strong force has stepped forward?’

I didn’t like that very much.

Of course, there’s nothing I can do about it.

As the surroundings grew quiet, Kyla and Athena must have thought it was okay, and they went back to their room, and Baldur received the new food, cleared away the old food, and started eating with me again.

As the situation took a strange turn, the mercenaries hesitated for a moment before starting to leave the inn one by one.

Thanks to that, I was able to spend the rest of my time in peace.

Unlike an ordinary 4th-class black magician, they didn’t get excited easily, so it seemed they intended to act a little more cautiously.

Nevertheless, Kyla and Athena didn’t come out of their room in case something happened, and Baldur had to take the trouble of bringing food to them.

On the day the mercenary fee was paid, we went to the mercenary guild together.

Uproar.

As if our presence was already widely known, the gazes of many mercenaries were focused on us.

Athena frowned, Kayla remained relatively expressionless, and Baldur surveyed the surroundings.

I approached the reception with a faint smile, unfazed.

“I heard you’ve been through a lot of trouble.”

The receptionist told me, already aware of the news.

“It can’t be helped. Our information is bound to be made public.”

In order to accept a request, one must know what kind of mercenary they are.

Therefore, the information of mercenaries had to be made public, and the information of other mercenaries was bound to spread little by little.

‘Still, the speed was unusually fast.’

It was as if the information had simply been spread out in the open.

Of course, it wasn’t as if the receptionist before me or the examiner, Brennell, had spread it on purpose, but rather, they must have inevitably reported it to their superiors due to their duties, and in the process, countless people must have learned of our information.

Well, considering our level or my existence, it was a natural result.

‘It must have been consumed as a topic of conversation.’

That was why I had nothing to say to the receptionist.

“It’s not common to find a warlock with such skill and patience. Soon, they’ll stop being so disrespectful to your face.”

It was a consolidation of sorts.

Of course, the receptionist wasn’t saying that because he had good feelings towards warlocks or me.

It was an indirect way of expressing that even though the mercenaries had committed discourteous acts, the Mercenary Guild was taking a different approach.

“It’s fine. I’m used to it.”

“… You have great patience.”

When he saw that my face didn’t show any sign of genuine anger, the receptionist seemed surprisingly surprised.

“It’s not really like that…”

Of course not. Unlike ordinary warlocks, I haven’t made a contract with the Demon Tribe, nor am I affected by the negative effects of magic.

On top of that, I wasn’t foolish enough to react to insults whose intentions were obvious.

‘They’ll end up paying the price anyway.’

Whether they were attacking us out of anxiety after seeing our rapid progress or out of impatience after seeing our growth spurt, they would eventually have no choice but to confront us.

Well, there might be some who approached us without revealing their intentions, or some who came to apologize in order to survive…

‘There’s no need to accept them.’

There were plenty of other groups we could establish good relationships with besides them.

Of course, if they showed enough sincerity, the story might be a little different.

“What are the recent official guild requests? I’d like to receive one that we can accept.”

“For high-ranking mercenaries like yourselves, monster subjugation would be the most appropriate. The safest options would be subjugating a medium-sized Orc tribe, dealing with Trolls, or handling Giant Ents or Giant Spiders.”

Giant Ent subjugation definitely had to be handled by high-ranking mercenaries in party units, as the size of their lair was difficult to grasp from the outside.

If mid-ranking mercenaries were to do it, they wouldn’t be very welcome with just one or two parties.

This was another example of how absurd the orders given by Baron Owallan had been.

Among the list, I became interested in the word Troll.

“Have Trolls appeared?”

“You’re in luck.”

They were creatures that could be used as potion ingredients. That’s why they were popular requests.

Even an individual that can’t use mana is considered an upper-class request if it’s a monster belonging to a medium to large group.

Whoever defeats it first gets to keep it.

I left a bit early to receive the mercenary request, and luck was on my side.

‘Should I start with this?’

Rather than conspicuously acting suspiciously in a situation where all eyes are focused on me, I planned to make a standard request to slightly avert their attention for the time being.

“I’ll take it.”

“Hmm, the last sighting was around the village of Nolmeri.”

“Village of Nolmeri…”

“Ah, it’s a village located southwest of the castle. There are six villages under the jurisdiction of the Lord of Doriem.”

The village of Nolmeri is said to be one of them, located to the southwest.

As far as I can remember, I think it’s not that far away.

As a side note, the name of the village is said to have come from it originally being the territory of the nols.

‘I heard before that they sent a knight to cut off all their heads.’

That’s the origin of the name.

It wasn’t that difficult of a task for a knight, so it’s likely to have happened.

“They say it invaded from the west of the village of Nolmeri. Part of the village was destroyed, and the stationed mercenary group suffered heavy damage.”

They’re called a mercenary group, but it seems there were no upper-class mercenaries.

Even if there were, it seems they weren’t at a level where they could use aura.

It’s highly likely that there were no wizards or priests. They usually join large-scale or proper parties or mercenary groups.

“That direction is the Forest of Monsters, isn’t it?”

“Monsters always come out from there.”

That’s true.

That’s why most monster subjugation requests involve activity in that area.

“Hmm… How long will it take?”

“Ten days. If you purely subjugate, you’ll receive 20 silver after commission, and if you hand over the body, you’ll receive an additional 200 silver. If you’re uncomfortable with entering the forest, you can just stay in the village for ten days.”

In that case, they won’t ask about penalties for failure.

To put it simply, you can think of the penalty as protecting the village for ten days.

“Of course, you’ll be provided with food and lodging while staying in the village.”

‘…Upper-class mercenaries definitely get treated differently.’

It’s a world of difference from the treatment I received as a lower-class mercenary.

Even the penalty for failure is practically nonexistent.

Lower-class mercenary requests are quite competitive to receive, and the pay isn’t as great as you’d think.

To be exact, since several people usually go together for safety, the pay gets divided, and as a result, I don’t end up with much money.

In the worst cases, there were times when I only made 20 copper from a request.

On top of that, you have to pay for your own equipment and meals.

This is something I personally experienced.

I did a one-day request, but I felt incredibly empty afterwards.

‘Even doing a day of manual labor at a large estate earns you around 50 copper, so I thought it might be better to just do manual labor.’

Additionally, lower-class mercenaries face quite a large penalty if they fail a request.

In a way, that makes sense. There are a lot of lower-class mercenaries, so there are a lot of people to replace them, which means their treatment can’t be that great.

Even if you become an intermediate mercenary, it doesn’t get much better, but the treatment for an advanced mercenary was completely different.

Despite the poor environment, the reason I chose to become a mercenary was that there wasn’t work for physical labor every day, and I thought that it was better to become a mercenary as long as I didn’t lose my life in the long run.

It was a system where things would gradually get better if you built up a record and received the guild’s guarantee.

In reality, I went through all sorts of hardships and went through terrible things, but I managed to somehow establish myself, but like I said before, I ended up failing after messing with a dark magician’s dungeon.

“If you capture them… .”

“If you capture a troll, will the guild buy it?”

“… Capture a troll… ? Oh, I apologize. Yes. We are buying them. We have a branch of the Magic Tower in our territory… In that case, you will probably receive around 10 gold.”

The value of a live troll and a dead troll is completely different.

Troll blood is an ingredient for potions, but its value decreases rapidly after it dies.

On the other hand, live trolls are used for various studies and their fresh blood can be extracted alive, so they were highly sought after by the Magic Tower.

“But capturing monsters can’t be that easy… .”

It is a profession that is looked down upon by the upper class.

However, my case was a bit unusual.

“Have you forgotten my profession?”

“Ah… .”

“It’s something that magicians welcome, so I thought it would help my image a bit.”

Magicians also tend to look down upon dark magicians.

However, if it benefits them, then it’s a different story.