"There is still another party?" Jack frowned. "Are they your friends?"
"Never met them before," John replied. "Got their recommendations from Tip here."
Tip was bewildered hearing his name was mentioned, he hurriedly said, "I just happened to bump into them in one of the taverns in the city. The leader added me as a friend and said to contact him if I ever need a service or help with quests."
"A mercenary group?" Bowler facepalmed. "Are you kidding me? You already have a group that will come to help you, what are you doing blackmailing us for?
"Friend, please, it's cooperating, not blackmailing. You made it sound so bad," John said. "It's a level 20 Boss inside, you can't be too careful. The more the safer, ain't it?"
"How are you going to pay that mercenary party?"
"Well… I said we are only interested in completing the quest. Anything they find inside they can take," John smiled sheepishly.
"You… scoundrel!" Bowler stood up in anger. "Didn't you said the loots inside will be given to us?"
"Actually, if you try to remember. I only said that we are only interested in clearing the quest," John defended. "I never said anything about the loot."
Jack now understood why the two men besides John looked at him strangely when they talked about the loots.
"Let's just kill this asshole and hope the flower drop," Bowler said to Jack.
"Please calm yourself. I'm sure an agreement could be negotiated with the other party once they arrive."
"Who is this group that you had invited?" Jack asked.
John gave a nudge to Pointy Tip, who reluctantly spoke, "they called themselves Men of Solidarity."
"Wait, do you mean Warriors of Solidarity?" Bowler said.
"Um, no. Not that famous guild. You can look at them as a cheap knock-off from that guild."
"What the… Can you at least find someone more reliable? You have to go and find some famous guild wannabee?"
"Friend, it's not like we have many options," John said with exasperation.
"How good are them?" Jack asked Tip.
"I'm not sure, but they look strong. I mean, from real-world standards they would look strong. They are rough men. Like the Warriors of Solidarity, they only accept men into their gang. And they actually went further by only accepting men who use Fighter class. I'm not sure about the others, but when I met the leader two days ago, he was level 11."
"Not too impressive then," Bowler said.
"Friend, you are level 11 yourself," John commented sarcastically after using Inspect on him.
"I wasn't comparing the guy to myself! I was comparing him to my big bro here!" Bowler explained in annoyance.
John looked at Jack, "What is your level? my Inspect skill kept on failing on you."
"Fourteen," Jack didn't try to conceal his level.
Tip and Trap opened their mouth wide upon hearing it. John however kept his indifferent face. He said, "that's impressive. That should be your bargaining power when you negotiate with them for the loots then."
"How many of them that will come?" Jack asked.
John shrugged, he looked at Tip, who also shrugged.
"You told them about the level 20 boss?"
Tip scratched his head, and said, "well… John here said no need to mention the level. Just say we got a very very strong boss monster that we need help with."
John shrugged, "Didn't want to scare them away before they arrive, right?"
"You are one sly meanie," Bowler quipped.
With nothing better to do, they decided to spend the night together. At first, Jack thought about going into the cave for a recon. If it was possible for them to kill the boss without had to wait for the other party in the morning, then there would be no need to negotiate about the loots distribution anymore.
But Peniel reminded him that even though the boss inside was only an Elite, it would still be difficult for him to win with current members, unless if he exposed all his trump cards, which included his dual-class and his sword's Overlimit skill. Jack thought that it made sense, and so decided against it.
Jack distributed the night watch as if their three new friends were non-existent, because he did not trust them yet. So Bowler would keep the first watch, Jack would be second, and the last was Fierce Flame. John upon hearing that they were not included in the night watch rotation was completely fine with it, he went to sleep immediately without any worry. Bowler was grumbling seeing his carefree attitude.
During the night, they were attacked two times. One during Bowler's watch by the Silver Wolves, another during Jack's watch by Goblins. During those two attacks, Tip and Trap woke up to help repel the attacks. John, however, amazingly slept through both ordeals. Bowler had the urge to kick him awake.
In the morning, Jack cooked a lot of meals as preparation for when they ventured into the cave. He made three Chicken Soup for Bowler, Flame, and himself, and eight sets of Egg Fried Rice, which ingredients were cheaper and easier to find.
The Egg Fried Rice was for John and his two comrades and the people from Men of Solidarity. He didn't know how many members of that gang that would appear, he spared five for them just based on the spare ingredients he got at the moment.
After finished with the cooking, he took Bowler and Flame to go grind monsters for experience while waiting for Men of Solidarity to arrive. Before they left, he added John as his Friend, so he could notify him when the Men of Solidarity arrived.
They hunted for two hours before John sent them a message. During the hunt, they have decimated two packs of Silver Wolves and one pack of Goblins. When they returned to the place where they had camped the night before, they saw a crowd. There were eleven people apart from John, Tip, and Trap.
As described, the Men of Solidarity were a rowdy-looking bunch, and all of them wore Fighter armors. John was speaking with one of the men, who was a tall middle-aged man with a bulky frame. He wore full leather armor gear including a leather cap, an armor piece that Jack still lack. When John saw Jack approaching, he smiled and called out.
"My Friend, you have returned! Come, let me introduced you to this fine gentleman, this is The Man, leader of Men of Solidarity?"
"Who?" Jack asked, afraid that he had heard wrong.
"The Man, leader of Men of Solidarity," John repeated.
"Which man?"
John clasped the man with full leather armor beside him, "the man, T-H-E, space, M-A-N! His name is The Man."
Jack was dumbfounded, he inspected the man using his God-eye Monocle.
The Man (Fighter, level 12)
HP: 340
There was indeed every kind of people in the world, Jack thought. He nodded towards The Man. "Nice to meet you," he said.
"Can't say the same," The Man replied rudely. "I heard you are the fools that plan to steal our loots?"
"What do you mean steal?" Bowler said. "It is a cooperation! So it is normal for the loots to be distributed."
The Man laughed, his other members laughed as well following their leader's lead. The Man looked at Bowler disdainfully, "you think you have the right to discuss cooperation with us? Look at you three. Didn't your school teacher teach you how to count? You think you can compare with eleven of us?"
He then turned to John, "forget these three clowns! We will finish the quest ourselves. Show us the cave!"
All the other members of Men of Solidarity started to make noise.
"Yeah, what are the need for these three weaklings! We will defeat the Boss monster ourselves!"
"Take us to the cave!"
"Let's kill the Boss!!"
Jack looked at John and asked him. "Did you tell them already that the Boss is level 20?"
The crowd died down after hearing Jack's words.