Ch.356[Episode 356] Raid

“Hey, you there. Is this your first raid?”

Sir Dominic looked at the person who was speaking to him.

There was a rather handsome male swordsman, with three somewhat dazed-looking women behind him.

The women were tilting their heads with expressions that suggested something wasn’t quite right, and they seemed uncomfortable somewhere deep inside.

“Yes, it is. Who are you?”

Sir Dominic asked about the swordsman’s identity.

“Me? I’m a bus driver. Someone who helps inexperienced people for a small fee, you could say.”

The swordsman seemed like someone who quite enjoyed his own importance.

“You help inexperienced people?”

“Yeah. Everyone has their first raid sometime, right?”

The swordsman responded to Sir Dominic’s question as if it were obvious.

“You seem to be in quite a difficult situation.”

“I kept getting kicked out whenever I clicked on party finder.”

“Ah.”

The swordsman nodded in understanding at Sir Dominic’s words.

“They’re probably commander parties. People who want to get familiar with commanders. The funny thing is, commanders actually form 4-person parties by hiring one extra character in addition to their basic character set. It’s all pointless.”

Sir Dominic finally understood why other parties had expelled him.

“So that was the reason.”

“Since you’re here to run a raid, I recommend either gathering people or finding a capable bus driver like me if you want to do it properly. Especially watching a demonstration from someone skilled like me—that’s something you can’t buy with money.”

Of course, I do charge a fee! the swordsman laughed.

“Ah, but you can’t ask me right now. Our party is full. Besides, I’ve already received payment upfront.”

The swordsman said this as he walked toward one of the raids.

“Well, I might give you a service next time we meet. See you.”

With those words, the swordsman and his companions disappeared from the lobby.

They seemed to have entered a raid.

“Hmm.”

Sir Dominic stroked his chin as he looked at where the swordsman and his companions had vanished.

“Should I gather a party too?”

Sir Dominic muttered quietly.

Now that he knew raids were divided into three categories—bus driver parties, commander parties, and acquaintance parties—Sir Dominic was considering whether he should ask his acquaintances.

Just then, someone came rushing up behind Sir Dominic.

“Oh dear, where did she go?”

“Hmm… It’s well past our meeting time, why isn’t she coming…”

“Hmm. Hmm? Canceled? Wait. I’ve already prepared all the consumables— Wait a minute!”

More accurately, it was several people.

“Excuse me, have you seen a magician who looks like this? She’s my childhood friend—”

A rather plain-looking mercenary approached Sir Dominic.

He had red hair and pale skin covered with freckles, and he handed Sir Dominic a photo.

When Sir Dominic looked at the photo, he saw an equally plain-looking, stereotypical female magician.

Sir Dominic suddenly realized that this woman was one of the women accompanying the blonde swordsman earlier.

“Someone just took her away. He introduced himself as a bus driver—”

“Oh no, she’s always so gullible…”

The red-haired mercenary sighed.

“If it’s not too intrusive, may I ask what happened?”

Sir Dominic suddenly became curious about this mercenary’s story.

“Oh, it’s nothing special. We were supposed to run a raid together today. When you think of raids, you usually think of 4-person or 8-person parties, but there are duo raids too. But…”

The mercenary seemed momentarily at a loss for words, then let out a sigh and lamented.

“She’s a bit… eccentric. She probably followed the bus driver to prepare in advance so she wouldn’t hold me back… why now of all times…”

The mercenary’s sighs seemed endless.

“That must be difficult for you.”

“Well, I’m used to it by now.”

Just from the mercenary’s words, Sir Dominic could tell how frustrating his childhood friend must be.

“May I ask you something?”

While Sir Dominic and the mercenary were conversing, someone else approached from behind.

He was a fat giant with a load of baggage on his back and a priest’s hat on his head, with a beard so bushy that it reached his navel.

“Have you seen a girl with curly hair wearing a nun’s habit around here?”

The giant cleric asked Sir Dominic and the mercenary if they had seen someone, tapping the ground with his staff.

“She’s my disciple, but she hasn’t shown up even though it’s past our meeting time.”

Sir Dominic once again recalled the blonde swordsman’s party.

One of the three women definitely seemed to have curly hair and was wearing a nun’s habit.

“A man calling himself a bus driver took her.”

“…Hmm. I told her to experience a raid, but I didn’t tell her to act on her own…”

The cleric stroked his beard, showing signs of discomfort.

“Well, nothing can be done about it now. I’ll just have to wait until she comes out.”

After saying this, the cleric went back to a corner of the lobby and plopped down on a bench that somehow existed there.

However, he was so tall even while sitting that Sir Dominic felt as if he were right in front of him despite being far away.

“Sigh… what am I going to do? I finished preparing for the raid, but the client canceled…”

“Hmm?”

Someone’s lament could be heard from somewhere.

When Sir Dominic turned his head to find the source of the lamentation, there was a magician.

“I could have made progress on my research results if I had run the raid this time… Now I’ll be eating hardtack starting tomorrow instead of doing research…”

The magician sighed deeply while stroking his long white beard.

Sir Dominic’s curiosity was piqued again, and he walked toward the magician.

“Why are you sighing so deeply?”

“Huh? Who are you?”

“I am Sir Dominic of Feralant.”

“Sir Dominic? The 4-star Sir Dominic?”

The magician looked at Sir Dominic with surprised eyes, seemingly familiar with him.

Even if he didn’t know Sir Dominic’s appearance, the name was quite famous.

“It’s… nice to meet you, Sir Dominic. I am a magician… Tim.”

“Tim. Nice to meet you. Why were you sighing like that?”

“Well…”

The magician began to tell his story.

It wasn’t really something to keep secret anyway.

“A few days ago, I got a call asking me to run a raid together. They said they had found a warrior and a cleric to stand at the front. But just now, I suddenly got a call saying the last spot had been filled and they were canceling our appointment. As you know, magicians are quite weak in raids, so I bought various items to be helpful, but now they’ve all become useless.”

The magician said that if he didn’t run the raid to earn resources, he wouldn’t be able to eat properly tomorrow, let alone continue his research.

“Can’t you sell the items back?”

Sir Dominic raised a reasonable question.

“Impossible. The number of possible trades is 0…”

And the magician Tim gave a reasonable answer.

Sir Dominic felt some sympathy for this magician.

The person who broke the promise was certainly wrong, but what had Tim done wrong to deserve not being able to eat properly starting tomorrow?

It was then.

Sir Dominic suddenly felt an amazing thought cross his mind.

Sir Dominic looked at the mercenary.

He was endlessly worrying about his childhood friend who had followed the bus driver.

Sir Dominic looked at the cleric.

He was reading a bible with magnifying glasses, waiting for his disciple.

Sir Dominic looked at the magician.

He was hugging now-useless items, worrying about his livelihood for tomorrow.

Finally, Sir Dominic counted the number of people in this lobby.

One, two, three, and four.

If Sir Dominic’s eye wasn’t mistaken, there were a total of four people here.

Of course, Sir Dominic only had half his vision, so he might be slightly wrong, but that doesn’t mean his counting would be halved, right?

Having made this amazing discovery, Sir Dominic immediately approached the magician.

“If it’s alright with you, would you like to run a raid together?”

“…?”

The magician looked at Sir Dominic as if asking what he meant.

“Actually, I came here to run a raid too. I just couldn’t find a party.”

“But… but why me? I’m an AoE specialist, so I’m not very useful in raids—”

“It’s fine. I’m new to raids too, so if you think of it as gaining experience, the scales aren’t unbalanced.”

“Well, that…”

The magician’s ears twitched as if Sir Dominic’s words were tempting.

“Moreover, I have a lot of money. I just want to enjoy the raid, so if we run it together, you can have my share.”

“Let’s go right now. What are we waiting for?”

The magician became very enthusiastic as soon as money was mentioned.

That’s how desperate the magician was about money issues.

“Not yet. Please wait a moment. Two-person raids are good, but wouldn’t we get more resources if we gathered more people and ran a bigger raid?”

The magician nodded at Sir Dominic’s words.

Sir Dominic left the magician waiting and approached the next person.

It was the mercenary.

“It seems you’re waiting for your childhood friend, but would you like to run a raid together while you wait?”

“No thanks.”

The mercenary just fiddled with the crossbow on his back without even making eye contact with Sir Dominic.

It was a firm rejection.

However, Sir Dominic noticed that he glanced sideways at the cleric.

And he understood what that subtle action meant.

If he could persuade the cleric too, he would join.

It also meant that he should try at least that much if he wanted to remove the pretext of waiting for his childhood friend.

Sir Dominic postponed persuading the mercenary and walked over to the cleric.

“What is it?”

The cleric lowered his magnifying glasses to the bridge of his nose and raised his eyes.

Sir Dominic proposed a raid to the cleric.

“Would you like to run a raid?”

“…Hmm.”

“The most difficult level. And without knowing anything.”

Sir Dominic had seen the veins standing out on the cleric’s hand as he was reading.

Though hidden by the wide clerical robe, Sir Dominic recognized that he had the qualities of a warrior.

And that prediction was accurate, as the cleric looked at Sir Dominic with sharp eyes.

“What if I refuse?”

“You won’t. I can see the qualities of a warrior in you. Why would two clerics run a raid together in the first place? Even with synergy, two support classes in a raid?”

“…”

Sir Dominic had unintentionally hit the nail on the head.

“…You’re right.”

The cleric acknowledged Sir Dominic’s words and stood up.

“As you request, let’s run a raid together.”

Having said that, the cleric added a condition.

“But let’s finish before my disciple comes out.”

Sir Dominic nodded at the cleric’s words.

Finally, Sir Dominic approached the mercenary.

“We have three. Let’s run a raid—”

“I guess I have no choice.”

The mercenary accepted Sir Dominic’s proposal as if he had been waiting for it.

He said that his childhood friend would understand if he explained that they needed him this desperately.

To anyone watching, it seemed like he had been waiting for this situation, but the mercenary shamelessly joined Sir Dominic’s party.

This way, Sir Dominic was able to gather a party for the raid.

Tank, DPS, Mage, Priest.

It was the classic fantasy party composition.