The Dungeon Tree

By now, Aoi had retrieved his trident and had given us a brief summary of what he had experienced so far. His story was similar to ours except his journey seemed to go a lot smoother than ours. I guess that was to be expected though when you're the leader of one of the top guilds in the tree.

"That's almost identical to our story. Only real difference is that I'm sure we encountered the actual leader of all these monsters." I said to Aoi.

Aoi raised an eyebrow, "s'at so? Tell me, what did he look like?"

"Hard to tell, he wore a cloak that covered his face. I saw that he had razor sharp teeth but that was it. I think his power might be teleportation to some degree since I saw him cause both the monster we were fighting as well as himself vanish as if their very existence had been erased." I shrugged my shoulders, irritated that I couldn't explain it any better.

Seeing my frustration, Aoi shook his head, "don't feel upset. Having at least some info on the main boss's skills is better than having no info. Besides, you managing to survive with your friends is more than enough."

I nodded, "fair enough. I still gotta find the rest of 'em though. What kind of friend would I be if I just left them?"

Aoi nodded, stepping aside to let the four of us inside. Although we hadn't entered yet, I could tell just by a glance this village was similarly built to the one the four of us stayed at.

"If you plan to go and help your other friends on the island, come to me and my crew. As one of the leading guilds, it's our duty to protect the next generation." Aoi said, standing still as he watched the four of us walk by.

"Appreciate the concern." I waved as I tried to walk by.

Before we could cross the gate, Aoi extended his trident out to stop us from going. I looked over and gave him a confused look and noticed he was glaring at Bea. He aimed his trident at her, staring at her with an ice cold stare.

"Are you aware that the young girl with you is a monster?"

My eye twitched when I heard Aoi call Bea a monster. Within an instant, Steven and I had drawn our weapons and stood in front of Bea to guard her from any potential attack Aoi might throw out. Behind us, Felix prepared a spell but his face was full of uncertainty. It made sense though, we had just drawn our weapons on a guild leader.

"Bea may not be a human but she's no monster." Steven said, tightening his grip on his spear.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." The two of us stood there, glaring Aoi down.

With a sigh, Aoi lowered his trident. "It's clear you have high trust in this being. My apologies for drawing my weapon. I wasn't aware if you knew or not if this being wasn't human."

I lowered Genki, "no I'm sorry for not mentioning it sooner. Your suspicion and reaction are justified considering where we are." Everyone else soon followed after with lowering their weapons.

As we stood there in silence, a man popped his head out from behind Aoi. I recognized this person. He was the one who said the ship wouldn't crash right before we actually ended up crashing. He had completely jinxed us.

"Ohoh! Looks like you lived up to the hype of being one of the big rookies, Wild Card John!" Vylan walked around Aoi and stood in front of me with a giant grin plastered on his face.

I had forgotten about that. When I first met this guy he mentioned me being part of this group called the Four Big Rookies. I forgot who most of the others were but I do vaguely remember the name Aisen. I couldn't for the life of me remember what her title was though.

Vylan had leaned forward, standing right in front of my face. "As a part of the next generation, I expect great things from you and your guild. Even that right hand man of yours holds a lot of potential." Vylan smirked before walking off.

Aoi sighed, "don't mind him. He's been with me the longest and I consider him to be my closest friend so I know he means well. Go get some rest. We'll set out tomorrow to find the rest of your group. I'll take you to the makeshift quarters we set up here."

I nodded, "thank you."