"How long do we need to wait, Eril?" A man with black armor asked the Guild Master's secretary. "We have been waiting for half an hour already. Do we really need to wait for him?"
The man was one of the twenty S Rank Adventurers, Damian. He was assigned to join today's expedition and was one of the four S Rank Adventurers that joined for the expeditions. Damian could no longer hide his displeasure after waiting for half an hour.
"It's my fault. I forgot to tell him to come early in the morning." Eril massaged the space between her eyes. She thought this should not be an issue because Tang Shaoyang stayed in the guild's lodging, but she did not expect Tang Shaoyang to not return in two days. It was her miscalculation to think Tang Shaoyang would stay in the guild since he wanted to hide from someone.
"Can you call him? Or should we just leave right now? We are wasting our time only to wait for one person." Damian raised his voice slightly.
"Please wait a little longer, Damian. This is the Guild Master's order to include Sir Ying in this expedition. If you want Sir Ying to be removed, then you can ask the Guild Master to do so. I don't have the authority to remove Sir Ying from the team." Eril met Damian's eyes.
"Am I late?" At this moment, Eril heard the familiar voice. She turned around and found the man she had been waiting for. However, her eyes were immediately attracted to the two creatures on Tang Shaoyang's shoulders.
"Are you Ying?" Damian came off the chair and approached Tang Shaoyang. He did not bother to hide his displeasure and a little bit of hostility in his gaze.
"I am." Tang Shaoyang nodded. "Do you need something from me?"
"Don't you have self-awareness? You come late, and you have the nerve to ask me, do I need something from you? Yes, I need something from you; come in time!" Damian spoke to the point he gritted his teeth, showing how angry he was.
"I am sorry. I don't know the appointment time. I will make sure to ask next time." Tang Shaoyang apologized. He figured that he was too late for the man to get angry. Even though he did not know who the man was, he assumed the man was an important figure in this team.
"Good if you understand." Damian wanted to say something more, but he realized it would make him the asshole to continue after Ying apologized. He then turned around toward another two S Rank Adventurers, Roman, and Lulu. "Don't you have something to say to the newbie as the senior?"
Roman and Lulu exchanged glances, then looked toward Tang Shaoyang. "We are fine. I don't mind even if he is late for three hours." Roman shrugged, pretending he did not care that the newbie came late even though he had complained a few minutes ago. He did not know that Ying was the guy that beat him up.
"Alright, that's enough, Damian. Sir Ying has apologized, so there's no need to prolong the issue. It's partially my fault for not telling him the time." Eril quickly interrupted before Damian thoughtlessly prolonged the issue.
"What with this sir? You keep calling him sir; he is not even our superior, but a newly S Rank Adventurer that just joined the guild!" Damian started to reveal why he was angry at the new guy. It seemed Eril calling him respectfully with sir bothered Damian.
Eril furrowed her brow. "It has nothing to do with you with what I call Sir Ying. I am not forcing you to do the same. More than that, it's because we are not close enough to call each other comfortably, so I must be respectful. So what's wrong with that?" She did not hide how annoyed she was with Damian. Her words were clear, mind your own business.
Tang Shaoyang gave a glance toward Roman and Lulu, giving them a signal to fix the problem. He did not want internal conflict on his first day as the adventurer.
Roman got the signal and hugged Damian's from the side, dragging Damian with him. "Chill, bro. We are comrades, so there's no need to be hostile to each other. We are friends that will fight together from now, and the dude also has apologized. Let's move up; we're already late."
"Where did you get the lizard and the cat from?" Lulu came from behind and asked. She and Eril had been looking at the two creatures ever since Tang Shaoyang arrived. It caught their attention because there was a small creature on this floor, so they suspected the cat and the lizard were quite strong beasts to be on the eleventh floor.
She was about to pet Greed, but the latter reacted strongly. He hissed at the girl, telling her that he did not like being touched by the stranger. Lulu retracted her hand immediately.
"They are my familiar." Tang Shaoyang then looked at Eril. It seemed Damian's action saved him from Eril's earful scolding for being late.
The expedition team consisted of a hundred Adventurers with varied ranks. The lowest rank was D Rank, and a quarter of the team was filled with the D Rank. Eril explained what the expedition was about. The guild discovered "resources" that System kept mentioning when the Dimensional Tower was brought up. It was a fully developed garden with various kinds of herbs and also poisonous plants. The guild wanted to take over the garden. However, the Virandal Empire from Axonias also discovered the same garden not long after the guild found garden.
Axonias was one of the five worlds that stayed in the Starter City #5, and the Virandal Empire was one of the three ruler factions from Axonias; as per the agreement before the alliance was established when more than one faction discovered the resources, the involved faction must solve the issue without declaring war on each other.
There were many ways to solve the issue; the involved factions could come to an agreement to share the resources. Or they could hold a deciding battle where each faction sent their five players to fight to decide who got the resource. Or the last method, whoever conquered the resource first, got the right to take the resource.
That was right; there was a scenario that was similar to Territory War. In this case, the two factions raced to kill the boss that occupied the resources. Whoever killed the boss got the resources. The Karian Adventurer Guild and Virandal Empire chose the third method. Whoever killed the boss inside the garden got the right to take the resource.