Chapter 178: Newbie's Invitation

"Together?"

Hearing his words, Rhode was a little bit surprised. He looked at the young man carefully.

He looked a little bit younger than him, probably younger than 20 years old. He had a young, energetic face, and the equipment he was wearing looked of exquisite workmanship, but didn't look practical. He carried a small shield behind him, and an ordinary iron sword hung on his waist. They looked quite good on him.

"You..."

"Ah, I forget to introduce myself." Facing Rhode's question, the young man apologetically laughed while holding his fluffy hair and said, "My name is Mitchel, and I'm the leader of the Divine Shining Shield mercenary group. These two days, we're planning to go to the Black Pine Ruins and just now we happened to overheard your conversation from before... I don't mean anything bad; I only think it would be safer and better if there were more people. If you're interested..."

The young man's words hadn't yet finished, because at this moment, a guest already laughed at him. "What, are you trying to achieve your adventurer's dream again, Mitchel? The Black Pine Forest isn't a place where people like you can go; just go back and tell your dad about it. Be careful not to let him hit you again!"

"Hahaha!" After hearing that guest's words, others also started to laugh and ridiculed Mitchel. However, the young man didn't seem to get mad. To the contrary, he only showed a helpless expression and no longer said anything.

After hearing the other's ridicules, Rhode finally knew this young man's identity. He was the Stone City's mayor son and could be considered as a rich second generation. However, this young man like adventuring more and brought his friends to create a small mercenary group. He had been running around here and there all day long. Of course, among his subordinates, there were only a few real adventurers; most of them were Stone City officials and merchants' sons. The mercenary group formed by them wasn't for monetary needs; it was because of their love toward adventure. It was no different than other rich second generations who went racing because they had nothing to do. However their actions were at least more beneficial for Deep Stone City since they drove out wild beasts that came occasionally. They sounded quite promising.

Frankly, Rhode was also surprised by their mercenary group name—Divine Shining Shield. It really sounded powerful and domineering and left an impression on people...

However Rhode knew that the more powerful the name sounded, the more useless the group was... Just like the player guild names in Dragon Soul Continent; the Top 10 Guilds on the leaderboards all sounded ordinary. From 'Starlight' to 'New Moon Knight', 'Tornado' to 'Evil Shadow,' none of them sounded too powerful or domineering, but were still quite strong. On the contrary, guilds called 'Overlord', 'Eternal Legend', and such were all useless and had no achievements. In fact, when players had nothing to do, they often talked about why the top guild names mostly sounded common, but domineering guild names had always been unable to develop. The final conclusion was that people wasted too much time focusing on the name. It was just like a writer who spent hundreds and thousands words to write a syllabus, racial settings, and continent structure, but couldn't even write proper text.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Mitchel. I have my own plans when going to the Black Pine Ruins. I don't want to be disturbed, and I cannot guarantee that our goal won't clash..."

Rhode naturally decisively refused this kind young man. He saw this young man was actually quite young and didn't know how to hide his thoughts. From time to time, he secretly looked at Anne beside him and flushed. He was totally a newbie.

Rhode, of course, didn't want to waste time on him. He wasn't going to the Black Pine Ruins to play, which was why he rejected him.

This young man showed a disappointed expression, but he quickly cheered up and nodded his toward Rhode. "Is that so... then I'm so sorry to bother you two. I hope you have a pleasant journey."

He politely bowed to Rhode while looking at Anne, who was busily eating her honey toast, and left in disappointment.

Looking at the young man's back, Rhode frowned.

Mitchel wasn't a bad person, but he was too naive. Could that kind of people survive among mercenaries? It had to be said that legendary adventures were only legends; there was always a difference between reality and dream.

Thinking until here, Rhode couldn't help but look at Anne. After interacting with her for some times, he found that Anne wasn't actually stupid and was very clever, but liked to act confused. In other words, Anne wasn't like most smart people who liked to prove themselves. Most of the time, she was too lazy to bother about those things. She had been living among mercenaries since childhood, so she would certainly be more understanding toward them.

Then how would Anne think about it?

Thinking until here, Rhode shook his head and no longer said anything. He focused back on thinking about the mercenary group that the owner had mentioned. According to the owner's statement, the mercenary group came here two days ago. It was a very strange thing, because the Mercenary Association hadn't yet lifted the prohibition.

Logically speaking, most mercenary groups should be in the middle of recuperation since they wouldn't get any points for finishing missions and might even be punished for violating the prohibition. After all, who dared look for trouble with the Mercenary Association?

Of course, it wasn't his problem, since he wasn't a member of the Association. Who cared about them? However, they still went to the Black Pine Ruins. This made Rhode couldn't help but frown. What were they doing there? What if they had the goal as him? Rhode would never give up the opportunity before him and give it to others. If they were aiming for the same thing as him, then it would be really troublesome...

If there was no other choice, he wouldn't mind to use other methods to take back what should belong to him.

Or to put it differently, make them belong to him.

He had used this method in the game many times before, so Rhode didn't think there was anything wrong with using the same method here.

However, Rhode thought that he still had to talk to Anne about this. After all, this wasn't something good, but Rhode also didn't think it was something bad. Mercenaries were the same as players; no one would act noble since it didn't make any sense. But in this case, he needed to at least communicate it with Anne first so she could make some mental preparation. Otherwise, when he suddenly asked her to steal things... she certainly wouldn't agree to it.

After an entire day's exhaustion, Rhode decided to take a comfortable hot shower first before going to Anne's room. He knocked on the door and soon, Anne responded.

"Who's there?"

"It's me, Rhode." Rhode lightly coughed and answered. "About our mission; I have a plan that I want to talk with you about."

"Leader? Okay, please come in."

Hearing Anne's answer, Rhode opened the door and closed it. After that, he turned around and wanted to say something, but didn't say anything in the end. He only helplessly looked at the view before him and placed his hand to his forehead.

"... Anne?"

"Yes?"

"... Won't you catch a cold like this?"

At this moment, Rhode looked at Anne, who was eating an apple on the bed. But this wasn't the point. The biggest problem was that the girl before him was naked—totally naked. Her golden hair was damp; she had clearly just finished showering. But now, it seemed like she didn't care about any of that.

"Rest assured, leader. Anne won't catch a cold." Hearing Rhode's words, Anne also seemed to have absolutely no idea. She straightened her body and answered. At the same time, she proudly raised her head and shook her upper body.

"Before in the forest, Anne always did this and never caught a cold. I think here is the same; really, wearing clothes is just too much of a hassle. It's better to take them off."

Followed by Anne's movement, her plump chest also shook from time to time as if it were trying to show its existence.

"No matter what, you're still a girl."

Rhode stretched out his hand and pulled up the bed sheet to use it to cover her body.

"It's better for you to be reserved in front of a man; it will be more attractive. If you're seen by others like this, you never know what will happen."

"Anne won't do that." Anne pulled down the bed sheet that was covering her body and showed a dissatisfied expression then complained. "Anne isn't that kind of person. Anne is only assured because it's leader. If it's another man, even if they want to see Anne, Anne still wouldn't let them see it."

Hearing Anne's answer, Rhode frowned. "Oh? Why I can? I will say this first; if you think that I lack the threat of being a man, I don't mind showing it to make you understand the facts."

However, Anne didn't seem to be embarrassed after hearing Rhode's words. To the contrary, she only smiled seductively. "Fufufu, if it's leader, Anne can accept it completely."

The girl laughed while looking at Rhode who stood not far from her. The bed sheet slid down from her body, revealing her white skin. Anne's eyes saw a trace of Rhode's wild side.

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room became strange.