Chapter Text
The sun began to set leaving the sky bleached in peachy red, leaves rustle as a man emerges from the forest. Clad in leather armor and hood he searches for his way back. It was just a regular day for Seoho and after long hours of work all he wanted was to head down to the guild pub and have a drink. Later that day he had finally finished his quest of clearing a C rank dungeon alone. He was famous for his accomplishments despite never partying with others. People had even nicknamed him The Lone Hawk.
He had just reached the city gates and was quickly let in after he flashed his guild card. As he stepped onto the familiar paved street, he pulled his hood further down on his face. His plain dark leather cloak covered only his shoulders, but in return hid his entire face. As he continued down the road to his favorite resting place, he would lazily kick some pebbles with his new shiny black boots that reached up to his thighs. In fact, most of his gear was brand new, sleek, sturdy, but the most impressive was his bow that laid flat on his back along with his half-full quiver. As he turned the left corner, he quickened his pace, almost skipping, towards the guild in delight.
When the door opened, he could smell the rough scent of old paper and sweaty adventurers. Although, not the most pleasant smell it had a familiar scent of home. He pressed his hand over his belt that held his quest item, a dungeon orb. He walked up towards the front desk and was greeted with a well-known back. As the man turned to face Seoho he lit up with a bright smile.
“Hey! Welcome back did you finish your quest?” Giwook chirped up in a customer service tone.
“Yes, the C rank dungeon” Seoho replied nonchalantly as he unlaced his small pouch from his bag and pulled out the dim red orb.
It fit quite snug in his palm but showed it to Giwook anyways. Giwook leaned forward holding monocle up to his right eye as he examined the item. He stood back and nodded his head in approval.
“As always you never disappoint!” Giwook’s demeanor quickly changed from his receptionist one to an excited puppy.
He ducked down below the desk to pull out a big red stamp. Seoho handed him the quest sheet and Giwook quickly stamped it with the seal. Giwook reached over the counter to receive the orb. He ran into the backroom only to emerge again without the orb but instead with a sack of coins. Seoho grabbed it and opened it to check its contents. Just as always, the amount was correct.
“Thanks,” Seoho said and turned away from Giwook, who was waving goodbye. With his recently received reward, he began heading next door to the guild pub.
The Guild had many different branches to it. Each designed to help adventurers in their, well, adventures.
The Guild pub was members-only and had perks for well-achieving adventurers. Seoho, being as amazing as he was, had visited the pub enough that he filled out his free-drink card.
He hastily opened the door, free-drink card in hand with a smile on his face as his long day was finally coming to an end.
Looking back, he realized he was too excited. After all, it was a long, grueling day of work, that had left him exhausted. Just a sip of the their finely brewed beer would melt away all his lasting fatigue. He should’ve been more attentive, yet fate had other plans.
The treasured card in his hand flared up into ash with a flick of a stray flame. The pub was a mess as chairs and tables flew around. Random magic was casted amongst the ruckus: water, earth, and fire.
He looked down at his two cupped hands surrounding a now small pile of ashes. It dissolved a little as a single tear fell from Seoho’s face.
Now, Seoho was somewhat, a pacifist. He didn’t enjoy engaging in fights whatsoever as he hated associating with other people. Unfortunately, he cared for that card as if it were his child he himself had birthed. It didn’t matter who, but Seoho will surely make them pay.
In a rage of fury, he attacked whoever crossed his path. That night, the people once again learned to fear his name, The Lone Hawk.
After things started to settle down, the only two left in the pub were Seoho and another man cladded in some platinum armor accented with gold. He had dark blue hair and a sharp fierce face. Seoho was currently extremely worn out after his dungeon clearing and now an all-out fight; He didn’t want to continue.
He straightened his back and pointed at the man and asked, “You up for another fight?”
“Absolutely not! I didn’t even start it,” the man replied curtly, wiping dust from off his face.
“I’m leaving,” he stated to no one in particular as he headed towards the exit.
“Oh no you are not!” yelled an even taller man. The bartender was cowered behind him trembling a little. Seoho and the other man stood still as they recognized the man.
The very guild master Yonghoon stood before them fuming. “No one is leaving till they tell me what happened!”
***
Seoho and the platinum armored man were kneeling, hands in the air as Yonghoon started lecturing them both. “I am absolutely disappointed in you both!”
“Geonhak you just joined us and now your causing fights!?!” Geonhak opened his mouth to talk back but was cut off again.
“And you!” Yonghoon turned to look at Seoho. “You’re not one to start nor engage in fights!”
“Since the moment you registered, I was glad to have such a nice sweet kid join.”
“But, but now you're acting up!?!”
Both Seoho and Geonhak kept silent, blanked eyed at their nagging guild master. They both hoped it would end soon.
Finally, out of breath Yonghoon stopped talking, and Geonhak finally had the chance to speak up. “I didn’t start the fight.”
He stared unblinking into Yonghoon's gaze. Seoho looked at the two and noticed how serious Geonhak seemed. Yonghoon, giving up, sighed, and looked towards Seoho for an answer.
“What about you?” Yonghoon asked tiredly as Geonhak lowered his arms and turned towards Seoho. With the unwanted attention, he turned his head away not saying anything arms still in the air.
At Seoho’s actions, Yonghoon face frowned as he realized the situation wasn't going anywhere.
In the end, Geonhak told Yonghoon what really happened: a party was arguing about how to split the reward money and things got out of hand. Of course, Seoho and Geonhak received some punishment as they engaged in the fighting.
***
Seoho sighed leaning against his broom as Geonhak was outside the pub wiping the windows. Seoho was pestering in his mind whether to start up a conversation, but Geonhak beat him to it.
“During the fight...” he trailed off and didn’t finish. Seoho looked up at him surprised.
“What about the fight?” He asked in return.
“It’s nothing.” Geonhak dropped his rag into the bucket at his feet and left. Seoho slightly confused didn’t want to bother chasing after him and continued to sweep the dust out of the pub.
***
Seoho was leaning back shifting his weight on one leg looking up at the vast board in front of him. Hand on his chin he tried deciding what quest to choose. A few weeks had passed after the pub incident and Seoho was running low on funds. The board was covered in all sorts of quest ranging from basic chores to life-threatening. Seoho reached up to grab a fairly old post.
A goblin base has appeared near the Yolin Woods, get rid of the goblins. It was a simple D rank quest, but after some adventurers didn’t come back, they raised it to C rank. After choosing his quest he moved towards the receptionist desk and as usual, Giwook came to confirm Seoho’s quest.
“Hmmm, so your gonna do this quest next,” Giwook said mostly to himself.
“Is there something wrong?” Seoho questioned.
“Well it’s just that I was the one to confirm the quest earlier” he answered solemnly.
Seoho nodded unable to meet his eyes knowing how dangerous being an adventurer could be, but there wasn’t anything but this for him.
“It’s alright, I'll come back for sure,” he reassured him as he turned on his heels to complete his quest.
***
Seoho was first headed towards the guild’s blacksmith. He needed to stack up on supplies before he left for the Yolin Woods. Earlier he requested an order for more arrows and they just finished in time. The arrows weren’t made of any special metal nor wood. Seoho didn’t have the luxury to spend money on unnecessary things like that. The bearded man handed him a couple dozen arrows, which Seoho put inside his quiver.
Before Seoho left he decided to look around in case he might need anything else. He spotted two new faces in the shop and shifted his hood further down. No one knows what he looks like and he plans to keep it that way.
The shorter man had blonde hair that covered his eyebrows almost touching his brown misted eyes, the other taller one stood proud housing a darker almost black, brown hair. They seemed to be looking at a small dagger even a child could wield. Seoho has never seen them before, but in a city this big it's not uncommon to see people you’ve never met before. He decided to leave it be and left the store.
His next stop was the apothecary that sat near the edge of the city. Seoho preferred this place over the guilds as it was cheaper, and he liked the old lady who owned the place. The shop wasn’t well known, and it was quite small. Because Seoho always adventured alone he hadn’t any real need to buy a bunch of potions. The door creaked as he opened it; he was greeted with a dimly lit room, light blooming in from the windows.
“I need 10 health potions and 2 antidotes,” he said to the old lady. “Wait make it 5 antidotes.”
The gray-haired lady went into the back and lifted a heavy crate of the potions he requested. Seoho pulled out 10 gold coins and handed them to the old lady. She silently placed them into a box as Seoho placed each bottle into his pouch. The pouch was seemingly small but was enchanted with space magic and could hold a backpack full of items. It cost Seoho a fortune, but it was worth every coin. The health potions were a standard necessity, but he also needed the antidotes as the Goblins were known for using poison-laced weapons.
Seoho turned to leave but almost bumped into someone. He jumped back holding down his hood. The someone he almost bumped into was yet another tall man. By looking at his gear Seoho realized he was a mage, behind stood two others one slightly taller than the other. At first glance, one would think they were twins, or maybe they were. They wore basic armor, but Seoho couldn’t tell what their classes were.
“Ah! I’m really sorry” the mage exclaimed.
“It’s fine,” Seoho stayed as he walked past them.
As he left, he glanced back at the shop and saw the twins had begun scolding the mage. He turned back again, clutching his hood as he felt his insecurities starting to bubble up.