Assimilate All Talents

Unsure of how he could help while pretending to be a prisoner, Sol let her continue.

The guildmaster began by confirming his suspicions, “You're correct in thinking nobles have played a hand in this. We’ve known this since we launched the investigation years ago. It’s because every month, all the noble families of the city requested the monthly rank report. It was a record of all the adventurers who had ranked up in the last month. When the nobles received it, they sifted through and compared last month's report to find the recent youths who had rapidly risen in the ranks.

“Originally, this wasn’t a problem. It’s a common way for noble families to find promising talents and recruit them. It was until 5 years ago that from that list they targeted youths and kidnapped them. We checked everywhere in the city and even sent investigators to nearby towns and cities to search, but we simply couldn’t find any of the missing adventurers. We even checked every slave we found and verified their identities and after months of searching, no leads turned up.”

Sol couldn’t help but interject, “Why didn’t you stop giving them the rank report? Or remove any possible targets from it?”

A sigh escaped her lips as she shook her head, “I wish we didn’t have to give it to those nobles, but their influence is too great to ignore. Near the beginning of the investigation, I did attempt to change the report to remove those who could be in danger, but they quickly found out.” As The Guildmaster recalled the events, she had a pained expression. “That year, the guild was forced to cover half of the quest reward nobles put up, and they got their damn list in the end.”

‘Why do you look more pained over the loss of money than the missing people…’

This brought his opinion of the Guildmaster down a bit, but he understood why. Running a guild wasn’t cheap, and to be forced to cover half of the quest reward might not be a lot for one quest, but it quickly added up. The nobles would also likely take advantage of this by doubling the reward for the quest they planned to request, increasing the likelihood of a better adventurer taking it while not impacting their bottom line as the guild will cover it for them.

Compared to the giant loss in gold, losing a few adventurers doesn’t seem as big of a deal. Sure, they were up and coming rookies, but adventurers die every day in this line of work. The reason she seemed so invested seemed more likely attributed to the fact that such crimes are happening consistently under her watch. Her reputation had most likely taken a big hit, leaving this case unresolved.

Not knowing Sol’s opinion of her, the Guildmaster continued, “The likelihood of a noble family being involved is undeniable. The crux problem is not whether a noble family is behind this but which. Kerman is home to multiple noble families, some much larger and more influential than others. We can’t accuse any family without undeniable proof.

“This is where you come in. Since you already plan to go back in to be “rescued” and can travel through the facility unhindered, I would like to give you a quest. There will be two objectives: obtain proof of the noble or noble family involved and find where all the kidnapped adventurers have gone. I dont have a reward in mind yet but be sure it will rival an A-Rank quest, I will find something appropriate for you.”

Sol took a moment to process all this information. She wanted him to snoop around and find the evidence, but that's much riskier than what he initially planned. If he got caught at any point while searching, it was over, and he would have to escape by himself and leave that girl behind. There was also one more thing that didn’t add up to Sol.

“But why not gather the evidence when you raid the base? I already told you where it was.”

“If we simply raid the base, they will have more than enough time to hide or destroy any evidence. Not only that, I suspect that there are a few guild employees who work at the behest of the nobles. If any warn them, then the whole raid will be for naught. We may destroy the base, but the noble will be fine by the end of the day, and if they really wanted to, keep doing the kidnappings.”

Silence overtook the room as Sol debated whether he should accept or not. He was already involved whether he liked it or not and personally didn’t want this crime ring to continue existing. Sol wasn’t a vengeful person, but these people were truly evil and deserved what was coming to them. The A-Rank reward is also a nice cherry on top. While Sol wanted to consider the proposition for longer, he was still on a short timeframe and decided to follow his gut.

“Alright, I’ll do it.”

The Guildmaster’s eyes lit up; she finally felt a spark of hope after 5 years of failing to solve what had been plaguing her guild. “Perfect! I will prepare a spatial ring with a few necessities and a weapon for emergencies.”

She then signaled to Trevor, “Go grab one of the spatial rings from storage and fill it with dungeon raid set C and add a rare sword as well.”

Not expecting to be suddenly ordered, Trevor’s eyebrow twitched, ‘You said “I” but I gotta do it?’

Holding back his inner thoughts from showing on his face, he replied, “On it Guildmaster.”

It only took Trevor 5 short minutes to come back to the room. He appeared out of breath from rushing around the guild. He presented a plain gray ring to the Guildmaster, which she accepted with a simple nod.

“Thank you, Trevor.” She brought the ring closer towards another more expensive ring that was on her right hand. A gentle glow emanated as the two rings made contact. Once the glow ended, she handed the gray ring to Sol.

“In addition to food, tools, and a weapon, I added a few things you will need for the quest. The most important being a memory crystal which I want you to place wherever you believe their leader resides, a meeting place would be a good place as well. The second item you should keep in mind is a short distance communication gem. Whether you believe it’s time to start the raid or you have something important to report, don't hesitate to use it.”

Sol received the ring knowing that was not the only thing received. He felt a heavy weight of responsibility of not only his life and Rebecca’s but of every future victim these criminals set their eyes on. With a determined expression, his gaze moved from the ring to the Guildmaster.

“I will do my absolute best.”