The Silver Calamity - Book 1 - Chapter 2 - Recruited (Patreon)

                                                                                                             Silver

I let out a grunt as the man slaps his hand on my shoulder with a broad grin on his face and says, “Nice work there, kid! Didn’t think I’d see someone as young as you already become a magician.”

Yeah, that’s a common response. And for good reason too, considering how painful it was to reach this point.

There’s a reason people don’t just feed their kids mana cores when they’re so young after all. And Black started making me eat them as soon as I turned 5 years old.

A shiver runs down my spine at the thought of how badly it hurt back then, but I push the thought away not even a second later to say, “You did well too.” Then I try to turn around and go back to the sixth car.

Unfortunately, try is the key word here as the fire magician still has his hand on my shoulder and won’t budge an inch thanks to his Tier 2 enhanced strength.

“Why don’t we go deal with the rest of the pirates together? I’d like to introduce you to my pals!” he says, still grinning like an idiot before he physically begins dragging me along with him by the shoulder towards the sixth car.

I can’t help but grimace at this, as I know that I don’t have enough mana right now to deal with another car. That burst spell drained me pretty much dry, and I’d rather not drain some of the mana in my sword before even getting to the city of hunters.

The man proceeds to drag me through the sixth car under the bewildered gazes of the non-magicians before continuing into the fifth car, where I finally ask, “Are you working for this DT?” out of curiosity.

He mentioned having pals that he’d like to introduce me to. So is he working a job for the tram? Or is he-

“Nah, we’re probably the same as you,” he says with a mood that contradicts the situation in this TD, “just some magicians who happened to be taking the tram during this, probably making these pirates wish that they’d chosen a different tram to rob.”

Okay then. Guess I was overthinking it.

It doesn’t take long before we make it to the third car, but by now it’s already empty of pirates. All there is to be found is one magician wearing black leather armor with a sword coated in dark mana, several piles of black ashes, and the obviously frightened passengers avoiding him like the plague.

“Aww, did you frighten the non-magicians again, Zach?” the fire magician whose name I still don’t know asks with more than a little humor in his voice while letting go of my shoulder finally.

The dark magician apparently named Zach turns to look at us, then focuses on me for a second and nods after seeing my sword coated in ice mana before narrowing his eyes at the fire magician and completely ignoring his comment as he says, “Another magician?”

Sparky – as I’m now going to call the big fire magician since he’s been so rude to me, and because of the fact that his hair is literally sparkling with flames every now and then – grins even wider as he says, “Yep! An ice magician who came and assisted me with the pirates in the seventh car!”

Actually, now that I think about it… if these magicians were in a group together, then why didn’t any of them pass through my car? Since they seem to be in cars on opposite sides of the one I was in…

My thoughts trail off as a loud crack of what sounds like lightning echoes from the neighboring second car, followed immediately after by loud screams. Then just nothing at all.

The two magicians next to me share a glance before shrugging and walking towards the second car, surprisingly not dragging me along anymore. But out of curiosity, I follow them anyways.

Although I begin to question my decision once we enter the second car to find a woman whose aura feels even stronger than the two next to me, who are both Tier 2.

Please tell me she’s not Tier 3.

“Oi! What the hell made you attack this DT of all places?! This was supposed to be my last day of vacation, and you just had to ruin it, you damn scumbags!” the woman shouts while waving a man around by the neck. An already unconscious one at that.

Uh. Yeah, I’m gonna step away now.

I turn around to quietly begin making my way back to the third car, just to find that the door had already shut behind us. And when I try to open it again, it makes enough noise to attract Sparky’s attention before he grabs the back of my shirt and drags me over to them without even saying anything. Just grinning at me instead.

Why me… I finally get free of Black, and now I’m stuck on a DT with a bunch of oddballs?

“Hey Flare!” Sparky shouts despite the fact that she’s already staring at both him and me. “I found us a recruit!”

Wait a second. “What?”

All three of them turn to look at me, making me realize that I said the second part out loud.

Oops.

The woman simply drops the unconscious man without a second thought before stepping over to us and crossing her arms. She is wearing a form-fitting blue outfit, with streaks of electricity running through it showing her status as a lightning mage – assuming the lightning strikes I heard earlier didn’t already signal that. That along with the streaks of darkness running through Zach’s armor and the sparks in Sparky’s hair and armor all show that they’re wearing magic armor.

So the only conclusion that I can come to is-

“You want this kid to join our guild? He can’t be more than fifteen!” she says, somehow guessing my exact age while blowing a flock of her pure blue hair out of her face and revealing her heterochromia.

I blink for a second at the sight of her blue eye compared to her purple one, only for what she said to click in my mind.

Join their guild? They are part of a guild?

Wait, of course they are. They’re Tier 2 and possibly Tier 3 magicians.

While I’m wondering what I somehow got myself into, the woman – Flare was her name? – suddenly narrows her eyes on my sword and mutters, “Wait… a magician at this age?”

Sparky’s grin grows even wider at that before he finally lets go of my shirt, letting me stretch slightly and fix it. He then says, “Yeeep! He would make a wonderful addition, wouldn’t he?”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!” I finally speak up with my hands held in front of me, drawing the attention of the three. “I’m a solo magician, so joining a guild is out for me!”

The three stare at me for a few seconds, then at each other.

Then Flare and Sparky start laughing.

I narrow my eyes at them and cross my arms, but they just continue laughing. So I begin to leave the car.

Just to find Zach somehow already standing there blocking the door.

“How about this,” the woman named Flare says, drawing my attention back towards her. “You join our guild, run a couple of rifts with us to show that you’re with us, then you can solo all you want. That sound good?”

My eyebrows lift in surprise at that offer.

“We can even help you get a set of magic armor,” Sparky adds with a mischievous look on his face that makes me want to punch him. But the offer sounds even better with that addition.

To the point that…

I purse my lips in thought for several seconds, only to be sold on Zach’s next comment.

“You can also live at our guild house for only a very small tax of 2% of your rift earnings.”

“We have a deal,” I tell them, instantly smiling at them while reaching my hand out to shake Flare’s.