"This quest was the one we found first." Dan Feng crossed his arms, speaking in a cold tone.
"So what? You found it first, but you haven't accepted it yet, have you? Does that count as you taking the quest?" The man said disdainfully, not even giving Dan Feng a proper look since earlier.
Dan Feng understood that this person was deliberately picking a fight, but since this was the adventurers' guild with its fine rules in place, Dan Feng couldn't make a move.
"You're really being unreasonable! You look like a student from Ranoa Magic University too—how can you be so irrational?" Roxy said angrily, but the man just scratched his ear, pretending not to hear.
Seeing this, Dan Feng comforted Roxy and then pulled her to the other side to look for different quests.
After all, they were still in the adventurers' guild—it wasn't good to start a fight here. It would be better to follow them later and teach them a proper lesson, Dan Feng thought.
So they quickly selected another S-rank subjugation quest. Although it was for subjugating a group of snow demons, for Dan Feng and Roxy it was still relatively easy work.
But that familiar hand reached over again.
Dan Feng's eyes narrowed. A flash of azure light passed over his left hand, and Cloud-Piercer appeared in his right.
Immediately after, Dan Feng swept forcefully. Using the shaft of the spear, he instantly sent the man flying, crashing into the group of his companions.
"I had no intention of starting trouble, but you provoke us again and again—what exactly are your intentions?" Dan Feng glared at the man with cold, sharp eyes, the tip of Cloud-Piercer pointed at him.
This commotion quickly drew the attention of the people around them. All eyes fell on the two, filled only with the desire to watch the drama unfold.
"Yo, they're actually starting a fight in the adventurers' guild. If this keeps up, they'll get fined—that's one gold coin, no small amount." Some adventurers shook their heads while looking at Dan Feng.
The man who had been sent flying by Cloud-Piercer clutched his chest and slowly stood up with help from others. That powerful, heavy strike from Cloud-Piercer had landed squarely on his chest. If he hadn't just received some healing from the others, he wouldn't even be able to stand now.
"You bastard! Die!" Having been sent flying in front of so many people, the man felt he had lost face. He grabbed his staff and began chanting magic.
"You two gentlemen! Please stop fighting immediately! No violence of any kind is allowed inside the adventurers' guild! If you do not put away your weapons right now, we will have to take disciplinary measures against you!" The staff member shouted in panic. Her voice sounded somewhat weak in the noisy guild hall, but it still caught the attention of some people nearby.
However, by this point the man had already been consumed by rage and completely ignored the staff member's warning.
His eyes were bloodshot, his mouth muttering incantations as he recklessly continued chanting a powerful upper-rank fire magic.
Once this magic was released, it would cause a massive disaster in a place with so many people—the destructive power was absolutely not to be underestimated.
The surrounding adventurers saw this and prepared to interrupt him.
Seeing how stubborn the opponent was, Dan Feng decided not to hold back any longer.
He swiftly cast chantless wind magic. A powerful gust of wind swept through like a whirlwind, blowing everyone around him away and clearing an open space.
Immediately after, Dan Feng's right hand surged with force, moving as fast as lightning.
He gripped Cloud-Piercer tightly and aimed it at the man's abdomen.
With a swing of his arm, Cloud-Piercer shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, carrying a sharp, imposing momentum straight toward the man.
The spear tip drew a cold gleam through the air, piercing straight through the man's abdomen without any obstruction, then deeply embedding itself into the wall of the adventurers' guild.
The man's body was struck by an enormous force and flew backward, slamming heavily into the wall with a muffled bang.
This way, it interrupted his magic casting without taking his life, which would have gotten Dan Feng put on the wanted list and subjugation roster by the adventurers' guild.
Fighting in the adventurers' guild would at most result in a fine—killing someone would get you blacklisted and hunted.
"Urgh!" The man let out a pained groan. Only now did he feel the pain—Cloud-Piercer had been far too fast.
Blood slowly trickled down the wall, and then Cloud-Piercer turned into azure particles and vanished from the space.
The man's companions hurriedly rushed over and cast healing magic on him, finally stopping the bleeding.
Without saying a word, Dan Feng took out his money pouch, casually pulled out one Ranoa gold coin, and tossed it toward the nearby staff member.
The staff member caught the gold coin steadily—this was the penalty for fighting in the adventurers' guild.
"Let's go, Roxy." Dan Feng grabbed the quest they had just decided on, then—under everyone's stunned gazes—had the staff member accept it for him and Roxy.
It wasn't until after Dan Feng and Roxy had left that everyone snapped out of it.
"Haha, that cracks me up. That guy couldn't beat him and still went looking for trouble. Even though that young man got fined one gold coin, it still feels so satisfying." One person mocked while looking at the man now lying on the ground.
"Right? But that young man looked really strong. When he threw that long spear, did you feel that battle aura? It was the kind that could crush us effortlessly."
"Really? I didn't notice at all—I was just watching him get pinned to the wall."
People around them whispered among themselves. Those mocking words drilled into the ears of the man who was currently lying on the ground. After treatment, he climbed up unwillingly.
"Let's go! Follow them! I have to make him pay!" The man said to the few people beside him, preparing to go trouble Dan Feng again.
However, that staff member slowly walked over. With a smile, she looked at the man and then slowly said, "Sir, because you violated the rules, the penalty is one Ranoa gold coin."
"What? Didn't you see he attacked first?" The man roared.
"But you were about to counterattack as well. Please cooperate with the adventurers' guild rules." The staff member stopped smiling, then signaled to the staff behind her.
Immediately after, that staff member ran upstairs and came back down with two burly swordsmen.
The swordsmen stood on either side of the staff member—the meaning was obvious.
"Uh, do any of you have extra silver coins? Let's pool them together—I didn't bring any today." The man said to the people with him.
In the end, they finally scraped together the value of one Ranoa gold coin, and only then did the staff member let them leave.
"Damn it! It's all because of that guy that we lost one gold coin." The man said furiously, shoving all the blame onto Dan Feng. He didn't think his own actions were wrong at all.
"What do we do next?" One of them asked with a troubled expression, hesitating. "Maybe we should just give up for now. Let's take a quest first and earn that gold coin back."
However, his suggestion was strongly opposed by the man.
The man's face twisted ferociously as he snarled, "Take a quest my ass! Didn't you see how casually that guy took out a gold coin? We're all upper-rank magicians—as long as we attack him from long range without him knowing, he can't possibly be our match. Only by killing him will all that money fall into our pockets!"
The man's words dripped with deep hatred toward Dan Feng.
He was a genius student at Ranoa Magic University, having reached upper-rank magician level at a young age. Such achievements should have earned him respect.
But now, his dignity had been mercilessly trampled by Dan Feng—this was something he could never swallow.
Hearing the man's words, the others looked somewhat hesitant.
"Huh? Killing? That doesn't seem like a good idea, does it?" The one who had suggested earlier stammered. "School rules probably don't allow students to kill each other, right?"
"Yeah, killing really isn't good…" The others chimed in, clearly uneasy about murder.
Hearing their strong opposition, the man finally started to reconsider. He finally regained some rationality—ever since being swept away by Dan Feng, he hadn't been thinking clearly. The rage of being sent flying in public had dominated his mind, preventing proper thought.
"Indeed, killing isn't great, but…" The man hesitated. He really couldn't swallow this humiliation, but murder was also bad.
"Big brother senpai, as long as you kill them, we can split the money evenly."
"Just think about it—he's just a warrior. Even though his water magic is impressive, as long as you attack him from long range with magic without him noticing, he won't pose any threat to you." Kurashi said slowly. She had now become an F-rank rookie adventurer, so she was tagging along with their group.
"And it's because of him that you lost one gold coin."
"Now that you mention it, if it weren't for getting revenge for you, would we have lost a gold coin?" The man suddenly remembered that he had only gone after Dan Feng and the others to impress his junior.
"Big brother senpai did it to help me, so it's all my fault that you lost a gold coin. But now that the gold coin is gone and big brother senpai's anger hasn't subsided—if we don't kill them, wouldn't that be too big a loss?"
She really was a petty person, unable to stand seeing someone so much better than her. Perhaps this was just a product of human diversity.
"This…" The man hesitated again. Thinking about it, she was right.
"Then let's do it. One big job and we're done. What do you all think?" The man turned his gaze to the others.
Hearing that both of them had said this, the others could only cross the school's bottom line and go for one big score. This was also their first time preparing to kill someone.
Although the whole thing had started because of Kurashi's exaggerations, the grudge between the man and Dan Feng had already been formed. So the man led the group toward the location of Dan Feng and Roxy's quest—a place Kurashi had inquired about.
After all, the group had just caused trouble in the adventurers' guild, so the staff naturally didn't look favorably on them.
...
"Dan Feng, I feel like those people won't just let it go like that." Roxy said as they walked, though there was no particular emotion in her eyes—as if she didn't care about the matter at all.
"I agree. If not for the adventurers' guild's rules holding them back, they would have already paid with their lives." Dan Feng said calmly.
If it had been in the wilderness instead of the adventurers' guild, those people would all have died under Cloud-Piercer. Deliberately picking fights meant they deserved to die.
"Then if they come looking for us again? Will Dan Feng handle it yourself, or do you want my help?" Roxy looked up at Dan Feng's profile and asked.
"No need. If they really disregard their safety and come after us, at least it shows some courage in my eyes—but it also means they're blindly overconfident in their own strength." Dan Feng said indifferently.
He didn't care. If you don't come, I'll let you off. If you really dare to chase after me, then don't blame Cloud-Piercer for being sharp.