Chapter 20 [Unedited]

I keep running, intending to return to the grouping point, where we started. I constantly monitor if I'm being followed. After running for 30km, I jump on top of a tree and stop. Listening and looking around, I don't sense anyone. I stay like that for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, I finally sigh and relax.

'Damn, I really need some allies.'

The only allies I have right now are the 2 kittens. I open the visor of their little cage and check on them. They meow to me when I pet them. I give them a few chunks of meat and close the visor.

"Time to get going." I jump off the tree and start jogging toward the town. After I've traveled only a few hundred meters, a woman appears before me. It's Raven leaning against a tree.

"What took you so long." She frowns a bit and asks me in displeasure.

"Whatever do you mean?" I put on an oblivious expression.

"Tch, whatever. Say, what do you say about becoming my subordinate?" She stands up straight, directly in front of me and looks me in the eye. The edges of my lips curl up.

"In what exactly?" I ask

"You'll be my party member in doing mercenary missions and certain other stuff." She nonchalantly explains and starts snacking on some peanuts, that she took out.

'Hmm, what a dilemma. I'd rather not associate with her, but her offer has certain benefits.'

"Why make me an offer now? I was certain you were going to assault me." I ask her. She turns to me with a small amused smile.

"Hou? A sharp little one huh. True I was, but then I saw your skills. You would me much more profitable as a subordinate. Plus most of my party died." She returns to her nonchalant expression.

"So? Answer quick, I haven't got all day."

I put on a pensive expression, as if I am having trouble deciding. Finally I nod.

"Mm, I'll be your subordinate."

From her phrasing and attitude, she probably considers me more a slave, than a subordinate. There are 2 reasons why I accepted. One of them is that if I didn't, she would probably kill me here, or rob me and sell me. The second reason is that I feel I'm close to evolving. I hit level 37 with that battle and once I evolve, I can deal with her. I'm going to brutalize her.

"Good. Follow me and don't fall behind." Raven started running, with Valia following her quietly. But inside, Valia was forcing down her killing intent and bloodlust. Wondering, what kind of hell will she introduce to Raven.

If future Raven was here, she would hit her past self in the head with a hammer, to stop herself from taking in a vindictive and cruel monster like Valia.

....

We arrived at the starting point, where the officials were. The only ones who survived from Ravens party, were her and the stoner archer Silvia. Silvia was already on the field, when we arrived.

"Hey, what's the situation?" Raven asks Silvia as we near her.

"Well the main force should be fighting the necromancer right now. The mercs who return here will be not sent back in, for the time being." She responds, then looks behind Raven, at me.

"I see she's still alive and well." Raven nods at that and says.

"I took her as my subordinate, she will join our party." Silvia smiles at that and walks over to me. She pats my head with a friendly smile. However her vibe is certainly not friendly.

"Don't worry little girl. This big sister Silvia will take good care of you~." She says and licks her lips.

I pull away from her. On the outside I have a blank expression, but on the inside, I'm losing my mind in rage.

We walk to some random spot, eat and wait. We wait a few hours. Eventually, the official calls us. He tells us that our mission is completed and updates our guild cards. None of us really care to ask what happened. They probably don't need us anymore, so they released us.

Raven looks at her guild card and says.

"We'll return to Alba immideately."

"What? Let's atleast spend the night in town~." Silvia whines.

"Nope, we have to report back as soon as possible." Raven says, not looking at her.

"Tch, such a stickler for rules." Silvia clicks her tongue and kicks a rock. I'm just standing there.

"Let's go." Raven takes the lead and starts running, we follow her. They're running fast, I'm almost using my max speed, to keep up. I use some wind magic, to keep the pace sustainable.

We run for 10 hours straight. Any time a monster appeared, we took care of it instantly, if it got in our way. If not, we ignored it.

When we reach Alba, I'm pretty tired. Raven and Silvia don't even have a sign on them, that they've been running for 10 hours straight. The first thing we do, is go to the mercenary guild and report back, recieving our rewards. Raven also registers me into her party.

Once we're done in the guild, Raven leads us to a large building. The building is 4 stories high and looks like an indusrial office building, that you would see in the 1920's. She knocks on the door and a man opens it. She says a password and the man lets us all in.

Neither of them say anything to me, but I'm certain that this is a gang's base. We go up to the second floor and Raven leads us to a room. She knocks on the door and from the inside comes a male voice.

"Come in."

We walk in. I see a big burly man sitting behind a desk with glasses and a suit. It's a funny picture, since the man is as big as a professional bodybuilder.

"Report." The man says only one word.

"Yes. We finished our mission in the outskirts of the town Rodia. I lost 3 of my party members there and gained a new subordinate."

"What about the other thing." The man looks up at her and asks.

"I confirmed it."

"Alright then. You can go and rest. I'll file in replacements for you, how many do you want?" The man turns his attention back to the table and starts writing something down.

"I need 3." Raven responds and the man nods.

"Dismissed."

We walk out of the room. Silvia leaves and Raven tells me to follow her. On the way she explains a few things.

"I'll lead you to where you'll be staying. This is the headquarters of our gang, do best to not piss anyone off here. Since you're my subordinate, some of your actions reflect on me.Take this."

She hands me a little metal badge.

"That's your id badge within the gang, it just says that you're part of my unit. You'll wait until I call for you. If you fuck up, run away or inconvenience me, I'll sell you as a slave. You got that?" She looks at me with narrowed eyes. I nod to her.

"Good. We're here." She opens the door, to a small room, with a bed and a toilet.

"You're on your own for now." After saying that she walks away.

I watch her walk away and then groan.

"Ugh. This sucks." I defeatedly mumble, then go and lay down on the bed. I take out the cats and feed them. Hugging them I close my eyes and go to sleep.

....

For the next 2 days, I sneakily explore the building and collect information. I learned the building layout, got random bits of information and learned a bit about the gang.

Apparently the gang is called 'Terror Bear'. It's a medium sized gang that has bases in 3 different cities and this is it's headquarters.

None of the members look friendly enough to initiate a conversation with and I'm not powerful enough to make any moves. So most of my time is spent in my shitty room, playing with my cats.

It might be my imagination, but they seem to have grown a bit bigger. I have no idea how to raise them. For now, I've just been feeding and letting them sleep.

On the 3rd day morning, Raven barged into my room and told me to follow her. She lead me to a yard, where Silvia is.

When I got there, Silvia waved and smiled at me, so I casually greeted her back. I stood next to her and waited for Raven to explain the situation, but of course she just stood there not looking at anything in particular.

"Why did you bring me here." I decide to ask her myself.

"We have a new mission and we're moving." Raven responds briefly. I click my tongue and don't say anything else. My hands are itching to rip her apart.

We wait like dickheads for 15 minutes, until finally someone arrives. A guy comes out of the building, dragging a heavily chained woman behind him. After them come 2 more people.

The guy greets Raven and comes infront of her.

"Hey. These are your 3 new members." He points at the man and woman next to him.

"They are Max and Violet. Both D rank." Max is wearing heavy armor, with a big shield and a sword. He is about 190cm tall with black hair. Violet is wearing a witch hat and robe, with a staff. She has green hair and is about 180cm tall.

Next he points to the restrained woman.

"She is Remy. She's your next mission."