Exiting the Ocean Bluff Temple in the dead of night, Marcus noticing the serene sight in front of him, lost himself for a few moments in the beauty of the night sky being reflected in the calm ocean water.
'Woah, when did that get there, since I have been here, I have only seen one moon but now a second is showing just a sliver of light. I wonder if there are even more moons if have not seen yet, this planet is much larger than Earth, so it is possible. Maybe one day I can even visit the moons and who knows maybe there is one with life on it.'
Once he had finished enjoying the beautiful sites of the ocean and sky Marcus headed back up the switch back path that lead to the top of the bluff and the guard station. Finding that the guard station was all but abandon with just one barely conscious guard, Marcus slipped by using his stealth skill on the off chance their was an exit fee.
After leaving the guard station Marcus made sure to check to make sure no one was around before he deactivated his solid soul, and he floated back to Loursend and phased through the city wall not wanting to pay anymore fees. Finding a quiet corner Marcus switched back to Irene's form before heading into the adventures guild branch.
When Marcus entered the guild, he immediately scanned the building trying to find any of the members of Wild Wind. Within just a few moments he was able to spot them sitting at a table next to the bar on the right side of the guild hall. The group was drinking various alcohols while looking quite gloomy, and Bryce was even holding some ice to his head which had a nasty bruise covering its right side.
'Damn guess I hit him a little too hard, he probably has a concussion with how bad that looks. Oh well, hopefully they learned their lesson that you should not just randomly attack people on vague suspicions, especially when you do not know their level.'
Walking up to them Marcus said, "Hey there, you all look worse for wear especially you Bryce, been having some hard fights in the Ocean Bluff Temple."
When the members of Wild Wind looked up and saw Marcus in his guise as Irene, they all looked completely stunned having expect him to be dead at worse and mugged at best. After letting their minds settle for a few moments Jasper was the first to speak up saying, "Irene you are all right, we thought something horrible happened to you."
Marcus expecting this responded, "Why would you think that I have been perfectly fine. I finished what I needed to do, and I just completed the first request I had inside the Ocean Bluff Temple."
"The thing is we ran into a guy in the dungeon, and he happened to have a scythe that looks exactly like yours, so we thought that man had done something to you and had stolen your scythe. Did you maybe lose your scythe or sell it, we thought for sure that guy had your scythe?"
With Wild Wind right where he wanted them Marcus took his scythe out of his item box and showed to them that he most certainly did have it. The members of Wild Wind then experienced relief followed quickly by regret for their stupidity in attacking a random person in the heat of the moment. Seeing the look of shame on their faces Marcus prepared to land the final blow against them.
"Wait, are you guys all beat up because you attacked this poor guy out of the blue because you thought he had stolen my scythe. While I am flattered that you all would do that for me, you really should be careful about just attacking random people, since they might kill you next time."
Having hammered in the last nail, Marcus could tell that Wild Wind had learned their lesson by their downcast expressions. Feeling quite good with himself Marcus decided to throw Bryce a bone and went over and cast minor heal on the horrible bruise that currently occupied the right half of his head. As the magic seeped into his skin, Bryce immediately felt relief from the horrible pain that was assailing his head. With a few more rounds of casting the bruise had visible receded and was now no longer a dark blue and black but a light yellow.
"Thanks, Irene that guy who we thought stole your scythe gave me a real whack on the head, but I guess I deserved it since I attacked him undeservedly. Since you are here and have finished the urgent business you had to attend to, would you like to join us on some requests. I know you said that you did not want to join our party but how about we team up for a few jobs so we can complete some that we could not do apart."
'Hm, if I am working with them, I will have to limit myself a bit such as chanting spells and not using my full ghost form. I also would need to be careful to not be injured since I do not actually bleed, but a gray mist just starts to come out of my wounds. But I could convince them to take on some steel level requests which will pay better and be more challenging. Yeah for a few requests I see no harm in working with them.'
Having come to his decision Marcus told Bryce that he would not mind working with them temporarily as long as they could do some steel requests. Bryce a little hesitant eventually decided that with Marcus' help they could probably get through a few higher-level requests.
"Well, I guess we should pick out a few jobs to do but first I need to turn in my completed requests and rank up to bronze. Why don't you all look at the request board while I do that."
Going their separate ways Marcus headed towards the receptionist counters to turn in his requests. However, it being the dead of night, there was only one receptionist on duty and Marcus had to wait in the long line with all the other late-night adventures. Arriving at the front of the line he could see the young lady who was working the receptionist counter had bags under her eyes and looked incredibly tired. The woman then yawned before saying, "And what can I help you with this evening."
Remembering all the late nights he used to work Marcus felt a bit of sympathy for the young woman especially since he figured he was about cause her a lengthy process.
"Ah, yes I have completed these two requests and would like to rank up to bronze."
Marcus then handed her the two tags for the request he had taken, and the woman looked at him with disdain when she noticed he was not carrying any bags.
"Ma'am are you messing with me, I do not see any of the bubbling crabs that were asked for by this request. If you have not actually finished this request, please leave the line so I can serve the other people waiting."
Marcus realizing his blunder said, "Sorry I should have taken them out first before handing you the tags."
Marcus then plopped the seven bubbling crabs and ten magic cores out of his item box to show that he had completed the requests. This caused no end of shock for the receptionist and the other adventures in the hall. While it was not unheard of for adventures to have item boxes, they were normally people of a much higher rank and a part of a famous party.
"Um, since I have produced the requested materials can I collect the rewards and then rank up to bronze."
With Marcus' words the receptionist snapped out of her daze and had to go in the back to get some of the reserve employees to transfer the bubbling crabs Marcus brought in before paying him one hundred eleven copper and starting the paperwork for his rank up.
"There that should do it, here is your new card and you are now officially bronze rank. You can now take up to iron rank requests, and once you have completed twenty more requests one of which has to be iron you can rank up again."
Nodding his head and thanking the receptionist Marcus headed over to the request board intent on picking out some new missions with the Wild Wind party.