Chapter 174 - Job
Once Yuki left his house, he headed towards the place where he along with his boss and other workers were supposedly meeting. Yuki had missed the first meeting due to the goblins attacking. If his boss was any sane person, he would have missed the first meeting with Yuki as well. Since they didn't have a phone to communicate with, they both decided to trust their gut and show up again for the last time. Yuki's new boss was going to the meet up place because he believed that Yuki wouldn't show up and that his resolve had broken. Yuki's boss believed that all that Yuki said was just a bluff and after a good night's rest, Yuki had realized that he wasn't ready for a tough job. On the contrary, Yuki was eager to start but nervous in case his boss had actually gone to the meeting during the goblin attack.
After a while of walking, Yuki arrived at the front of the store where he found the poster for job posting. To no surprise to him, his boss was already there waiting for him. The one who was really surprised was the boss himself as his face lit up with both joy and laughter from the unexpected happening.
"I didn't really expect you to show up," Yuki's boss said as he stopped laughing.
"Did I do something funny to make you laugh?" Yuki asked in utter confusion.
"No no, I just thought that you had backed out after having gotten over a day to think about what you had agreed to. I mean, I couldn't blame you for it myself as it would be completely understandable to back out of a crazy deal such as the one you made with me," Yuki's boss explained.
Garth, who was Yuki's boss, was a tall and muscular man with ginger hair and a thick beard. Most of the time, Yuki didn't know how to perceive him as he sometimes represented himself as someone who should be respected but at others, he just seemed like a child.
"Well... I'm here now, so where do I go from here?" Yuki asked slowly as he didn't understand how he should behave around his boss.
"Oh right. We should probably start heading towards our new site. You actually signed up at a good time. We had recently received a new task which means that we'll be compensated pretty well. Usually, we make our income by fixing broken houses and we take the money from the owners then repeat. It's pretty inconsistent but we do whatever we can to survive," Yuki's boss said with a smile which looked to have nothing behind it. There was no emotion on Garth's face for a moment. However, right after saying those words, Garth returned back to where he was.
"I forgot to ask, what happened to your parents? Aren't they concerned that you might be working in a dangerous place?" Garth asked Yuki.
"Like they'd ever care. I was brought into existence by a deadbeat father and a psycho mother. They'd be happy if I were to die right this moment," Yuki thought to himself but of course he didn't give that as his actual answer. Instead, he needed to quickly think of a way to answer the question without raising suspicion that he was a mass murderer in prisoned in the kingdom.
"Well, both my parents decided to go in the dungeons together and left me outside so I wouldn't be the face of danger. They'd done pretty well for themselves for a while however, one time, after they went in, they never came out. I waited for what seemed like years and after so long, I tried to go into the dungeon myself to see if it would let me in. If it did allow me to pass through, it would mean that they'd either died or finished the dungeon and forgot about me. To my disappointment, the dungeon allowed me to pass through. I try not to think about it too much as I can easily get lost in thought," Yuki lied. He was good at making up lies as he always had to think up a new fake lie to convince his mother why something was the way it was. If he didn't, he would usually get a beating.
"I'm so sorry to hear that. It was rude of me to ask about your personal life," Garth apologized.
"No no, it's fine. Like I said, I barely think about it. It doesn't bother me at all. There's no need for you to fear asking me anything. After all, I am eternally grateful for you providing me with this job," Yuki said as he tried to make sure that Garth wouldn't create a whole fake personality to make Yuki comfortable as he seemed to be much of a kind person.
"Okay then. If you don't mind, I have another question which I've had on my mind since you first introduced me to yourself. Most of the people in this kingdom know each other, as such, I would've been able to recognize you. However, I don't recall ever seeing you here," said Garth.
"So I really stand out that much?" Yuki said to Garth as he sighed.
"Well, I know this kingdom is closed off from the rest of the world for some odd reason. I had tried to enter the kingdom after realizing my parents were no longer there. I had run out of food and water on my way to find the closest kingdom from the dungeon gate. There were people outside the entrance so I begged them to let me inside so I could buy food and water. After explaining to them what had happened and an extra few hours of begging constantly, they let me inside," Yuki explained to Garth.
"So you're the rumoured blind folded kid! You're pretty famous here. The kingdom gates rarely open, let alone does a person enter the kingdom," Garth said with a smile on his face.
After a while of walking, Yuki and Garth arrived at a familiar place. It was the wall which the goblins had broken when they entered the kingdom.
"Are we going to be working here?" Yuki asked.
"Yes we are! This is the new task we were assigned. The guards outside are going to be paying us a hefty sum of silver so it's worth it. Of course you can back out now, that'll just be more money for the rest of us," said Garth sarcastically as he tried to test Yuki once again.
"Like hell I would leave this. I doubt any other place is willing to hire," said Yuki as he looked around to see all the construction tools and other workers which had already started working and were so absorbed in what they were doing that they didn't notice Yuki.
"That's what I like to hear! I'll introduce you to the person you'll be assisting for now since you don't really have any real experience. Don't worry, she's a nice person and only a little older than you," said Garth as he went towards a girl who was only slightly shorter than Yuki. To almost everyone, they would look to be the same height.
"Avila, this is Yuki," said Garth.
"Yuki, this is Avila," said Garth as he forced the two to shake hands.
"Avila, I want you to take Yuki under your wing and help him learn to do anything he can to help us around here. I'm a bust man so I'll leave him to you," said Garth.
"But-" Avila tried to speak before getting cut off.
"Thank you so much!" said Garth with a sinister grin before running off to talk to the other workers.
"Ugh, I hate that man. Always making me do his job for him," said Avila with an annoyed look on her face.
"What do I even do here? Can she even see me? I wonder if she'll hate me just as much as Garth if not more. Should I ask Garth to give me a new instructor?" Yuki asked himself as Avila mumbled to herself.
After a while of standing still, Avila finally noticed Yuki.
"What are you still doing here? I thought you left," said Avila.
"Umm... why would I leave? I'm still waiting for you to give me instructions," Yuki replied.
"Don't you get smart with me. I'm your instructor here. I can choose what I do and what I don't do," Avila replied.
"Got it, she's one of the snobby prideful idiots who think they rule the world," Yuki thought to himself.
"For your information, I'm a level 3 player. Before this place was put on a lockdown, I used to hunt in the dungeons. I even made it to the halfway point of the first dungeon. If this place didn't lock down, I would've been one of the most powerful in the whole world," Avila said with a prideful look on her face.
"Well, I've got to give her props for actually making it to that point of the dungeon. She might've actually gained a lot of levels if she wasn't in this kingdom. Once a person has the courage to even clear a couple stages of the first dungeon, they're able to take on the higher stages and all they would need to worry about would be strength.