Rui returned to the Academy once his bodyguard mission with Miguel ended. In the past week he had completed three missions, having earned up to a sum of ninety-six martial credits. In addition to the reward from his first mission, he had earned up to a total of one hundred and fifty-three martial credits.
Today was the dispatch and commencement of the party mission commissioned by Lowminer Industries.
Rui knew that as a service provider, clients were clients. As a Martial Artist, it wasn't particularly wise to get fixated on who the client was as long as the mission was legal.
Still, he couldn't help but feel sour. Working for the Lowminer Industry right after what his first mission was a hard pill to swallow. But it was a pill he had already committed himself to swallow, inadvertently.
At the very least, he could take solace in the fact that he wasn't doing this alone. Fae had already officially registered the five of them as a party, allowing them to take missions together. Rui found the whole concept of parties to be interesting.
For one they allowed lower grade Martial Artists to get a taste of what high-grade missions were like without bearing the full burden and risk. Even if they couldn't complete the mission by themselves, with the help of many, they were able to compensate for their personal weakness.
Fae taken it upon herself to the name the party 'The Quintuple Martial Apprentices'.
Rui simply burst out laughing while Milliana stared at her with a blank expression, and Kane complained and vehemently refused to be part of a party with such an embarrassing name.
Eventually, she managed to get them to agree to the name 'Martial Quint'. Only because no one could be bothered to come up with something better.
But otherwise, the Martial Quint was a well-balanced party. Rui was an all-rounder, while Fae was an offense-oriented Martial Artist, while Kane was speed and maneuverability-oriented, Milliana was stamina-oriented and Dalen was defense-oriented.
The one Rui was least familiar with was Dalen, who was more of a mutual acquaintance of the other three. They had only sparred a few times, and had barely hung out. However, he had grown quite close to the other three, so all in all, their team dynamics were fine.
Rui found all of them waiting for him in the dispatch facility.
"You're almost late." Kane told him.
"That's a dick way of saying I'm on time." Rui retorted.
They had all worn different colour and style masks. The Martial Union provided a unique mask to every Martial Artist, allowing them to be distinguished in and even out the field while still protecting their identities. This was mainly to protect lower-Realm Martial Artists and in particular: Martial Apprentices.
Since Martial Apprentices comprised of ninety-percent of the Martial Artist population.
"Where's the commencement location?" Rui asked
"At the main branch of the Lowminer Industries." Fae replied. "Apparently the branch manager would like to meet with us once before the mission commences."
"Alright." Rui sighed.
Once they finished some paperwork and protocol, they set out immediately by foot. All of them activated a one or two maneuvering Martial Apprentice abilities.
Rui immediately noticed that Dalen and Milliana were the slowest, Rui and Fae were somewhat equal, while Kane had to actively reduce his speed drastically just to ensure he didn't leave them all behind.
This made sense, Milliana was a conservative stamina fighter, there wasn't much of an incentive for her to waste time learning more than one maneuvering-oriented Apprentice-level technique. Dalen on the other hand was a defensive-oriented Martial Artist but also a tank as far as his physique went, he had bulging muscles all over his body. Rui knew that hurting him was extremely difficult, but in turn all that muscle mass made it difficult for him to accelerate to higher speeds.
They'd reached the designated location in half an hour.
"Alright, we're here." Fae punched in the button on the record device that recorded the time at which they'd arrived at the commencement location.
Once they arrived, they walked into the huge premises that comprised Lowminer branch, making their way to the main office.
"Ah, welcome team Martial Quint. Allow me to escord you to the branch manager's office, the official client is present there and has been anticipating your arrival." A receptionist greeted them before guiding them across the gaudy building.
Rui couldn't help but feel a bit stuffy as he walked around the place. He wondered what Bella would think of him if she knew that he had inadvertently stumbled into accepting a Lowminer mission immediately following his death. Would she get angry? He didn't know.
And it didn't really matter. A remuneration of five hundred martial credits was huge, it was a whopping half of the designated amount of merits he decided he would earn before purchasing new Apprentice-level techniques and devoting himself to training.
He wanted to take another step down his Martial path, and secondarily, he wanted to grow stronger.
Compared to these two intense desires, the sentiments of the dead did not matter.
Once they reached the office, the staff member knocked on the door, walked in as it was opened by guards inside.
"Ah, you're here." A man in his late forties sat at the center of the ostentatious room. "Welcome, Martial Quint, I am the branch manager Savin Felun, the head of this branch of the Lowminer Industries. I'm grateful to you for having accepted the request filed by Lowminer Industries."
Rui took a good long deep look at the man. A salt and pepper hair and beard adorned his face, neatly groomed. He wore a perfectly fit extravagant business attire. He possessed a commanding domineering demeanor that erased all doubts about his position.
"Thank you for your hospitality." Fae responded, with her usual carefully measured tone.
"The reason I called here was to speak more deeply about the mission." The man responded. "Although I'm sure the Martial Union has done a good job."