Chapter 197: Mercenary

“Are you guys thinking about being mercenaries?”

’Fuck, man, why the hell would I be in front of you if it wasn’t for that?’

Asked me the man who appeared to be a dwarf, behind the counter whose sole function was to give us our fucking mercenary certificates.

The old man was watching us with a clear lack of cooperation and asking a stupid question, even though he was the last step to get my mercenary status.

In the end, we eliminated the third empty Doppelganger, as it was not needed. The second one was temporarily stored in the dimensional stone, while my first one, was now my mercenary partner and was not using metamorphosis.

The skill upgrade did not extend that limit of copying a single skill, and we needed to be flexible. So we decided it was better to use the giant lenses, which unlike the ones from the academy did have anti-recognition magic cast by Elena, in case at some point I needed to use another skill besides morphogenesis.

Now we are both in the final phase of our mercenary registration, facing a man who doesn’t seem to want to do it. Honestly, when I came in here, I did so with the expectations that someone would suppress me for being a newbie, then beat him up and make my strength clear, but in the end none of that happened and all went smoothly until here.

’I wonder if it will count if I have to punch that old receptionist’. In the meantime, he, with a bad face, kept asking:

“Okay. And I suppose you’re planning to join the war that’s going on?” He continued, with a tone that betrayed disapproval.

’Even though you’re an old man, I’m not going to hold back if you’re looking for trouble.’

“That’s right,” I finally answered his question, thinking that pulling off his mustache might be a good deterrent.

The man sighed heavily, crossing his arms.

“Look, guys. I just do the paperwork, but let me give you some advice. You’re not the first ones to run away from home or come from the slums with dreams of being mercenaries.”

“…”

’Wait, I don’t think it’s necessary to pull off his mustache.’

“Most die, and few make it far. I suggest you reconsider, let alone jump headlong into a war. One has to…”

“Sir, I have risen to four ranks of existence. So has my friend.”

He didn’t seem to want to find trouble for me, but rather to lecture me on how important life was. I had no choice but to interrupt him because, apparently, there had been a misunderstanding.

While my Doppelganger had no choice, I should have thought about making myself an older age to avoid scenarios like this. Well, it’s too late now.

I have also observed that in this realm they call metamorphoses ’existence rank ascensions’, at the end of the day it is the same thing, but everyone calls the power ranks as they want, although I know that the most commonly used is ’metamorphosis’, and ’existence rank ascension’, and the latter seems to be the predominant one here.

“Oh, so you’re not just any desperate people. I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s good that someone stops inexperienced people.”

“It’s just that every day I see people coming here being desperate for money and thinking that being mercenaries will get them out of it, since the minimum requirement is only to have moved up one time….”

“….” this old man likes to talk and if it wasn’t, because I saw him waving his hands even as he did I would have interrupted him again.

“Four ranks of existence, him!…and you look young if it weren’t for this war, the kingdom would probably sponsor you. It’s a shame things turned out this way.”

“Yes, but we’re not giving up yet. We will become strong and be recognized by the gods.”

I had to get into the role I had decided, so I played along.

“Well said, boy. With your strength, it’s more than likely. Still, you must be careful with this war. But with your level, you must be a noble or the son of a knight and you should already know all this; you don’t need this old man’s ramblings. Well, I won’t meddle any more in your affairs. Here is your certificate and identity as mercenaries.”

His reaction took me by surprise. He seemed like a nice guy, someone who was trying to save rookies from certain death in this dangerous trade. Now I regret that I wanted to rip off that sleek, masculine mustache.

Being a mercenary was actually quite simple: you just had to prove your strength, equivalent to at least one metamorphosis, and pay a fee. Nothing else, you didn’t even need to prove your identity.

Of course, if you were caught doing something illegal using your mercenary title, the punishment would be more severe than usual.

although I heard in the bar that it was not so easy before and it is more because of the current circumstances.

Besides, the army easily accepted mercenaries with no questions asked. You could even sign up from here and take it as a mission right away.

It certainly seems that the rumors from the bar are not so unfounded and with what I know it is possible that an event has already occurred that would be advantageous to me.

I had already spent half a day in the tavern gathering information, and I decided to leave immediately instead of waiting for tomorrow.

It was in the afternoon, and the place where I was to go was two hours away by saddle, I thought that if I ran I could be faster than them and arrive in half an hour at the most.

I started gathering as much information as I could at the mercenary guild, and finally, after half an hour, I left the city.

After running forty minutes longer than I originally thought, perhaps because the standard of the mounts they measured was higher than that of the kingdom.

the road was straight and, from the middle, there was no way to get lost. For I could begin to glimpse on the horizon an immense and large red spot, which from my inherited memories I knew was my target.

The closer I got, the more details became apparent. It was a sort of diamond-shaped red crack. You couldn’t see anything through it; it seemed to be formed by a red liquid or smoke with black hues here and there.

At times it looked like the hues were coordinating and spiraling around, only to then dissolve in an optical effect, flowing like running water or moving like windblown clouds.

It was strange and hypnotic. The closer I got, the more I noticed its dimensions, which were measured in miles at least. It was gigantic.

I was not surprised, since my objective was beyond that crack, which could be said to be the origin of all the conflicts, in every age of the gods, of this world.

Here, especially, they seemed to take less traditional, and warlike measures due to an incident, starting an all-out war, ignoring everything that was the standard to do during this era.

..

.

“Alright, you two, you have four ranks each, fine. On the average, you will be assigned to front three. Right now you are in an intense battle, you will be part of the reinforcements, and you will be integrated immediately.”

As soon as we arrived at what looked like a castle with high walls and a solid defense, we were assigned what to do as soon as we demo’d that we were mercenaries.

We couldn’t get inside, but there were camps outside, which was where we were welcomed. The place was especially hectic; people, both wounded and not, were coming in and out, most of them in clothes that looked like army uniforms, a combination of white and red.

The situation was more intense than I thought. In addition, the surveillance seemed especially strong. Just at a glance I noticed that, in the space between the rift and the castle, there were multiple barriers with different functions, mainly detection and that was more than a mile away.

I reaffirmed to myself that it was a good idea to do all this instead of trying to sneak straight through. If this was how complicated it was on this side, on the other side it would be the same or worse, especially for a human.

Once the man finished assigning us, without even asking us any questions or waiting for an answer, he passed us what looked like a badge and led us to a squad that seemed to be in the process of forming. Neither I nor my doppelgänger said anything, we just looked around.

I knew from just looking around the city before coming: although humans, just like in the kingdom, were the dominant species, it seemed that their relationship with other species was as good or even better than in Avaloria.

I saw some giants, dwarves, elves and beastmen, and some even seemed to occupy high positions. In fact, the one who seemed to lead us was a dwarf, before I had not paid much attention to the old man, because he was behind a counter, but now that I looked at them clearly, I was surprised.

Just as they were depicted in my previous life, their height was less than 150 cm, with short legs and a sturdy body like a barrel. He was the second pure dwarf I had seen, as they are very rare in the kingdom and not a single student was a dwarf.

If that blacksmithing instructor at the academy doesn’t count, someday I will reveal that he is actually a poorly disguised goblin. Unlike that instructor, although not so handsome either, this one had a decent appearance, with red hair and braids in his beard.

It was such a generic dwarf that I found it curious that in my previous world they were represented so well, being supposedly fictional.

..

After a few minutes, enough people seemed to gather. Finally, the dwarf leaned his axe and began to speak authoritatively, as he swept his gaze over everyone present.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t see his state , but from the aura he was emitting, he was approximately at the level of seven metamorphosis.

“Well, I won’t say anything unnecessary. Whatever the reason you came, from now on your only goal is to kill demons. Your payments and rewards will be based on the number of contributions. The medallion you have will account for it. If they survive, glory awaits them. If they die, the rewards will be given to the surviving members of the group.”

“…”

“That’s it. I don’t expect you to follow the military order state of any of you and you can basically act on your own in the place we assign you, just don’t interfere with the main army. Understood?”

“”Understood.” ”

When the dwarf asked, and only a few of us responded, including us. It was already clear why he didn’t expect some kind of military order; we’re just there to fill out the numbers.

He showed a somewhat disappointed face, sighed and turned, walking in the direction of the rift. Our group of over a hundred mercenaries followed behind him.

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