Chapter 36 Group Mission Ethan drank two more bottles of liquor after the party…
After the party, Ethan gulped down two bottles of vomiting potion, and after vomiting, he drank a bottle of stomach potion before he felt a little better.
Although he looked a bit disheveled in the mirror, there was nothing he could do; he had just eaten too much food. His mouth was satisfied, but his stomach was terribly upset.
Ethan washed his face and started browsing the wizard forum, opening the quest section and searching for which quest to choose for his next mission.
Ethan had previously planned to quickly earn enough reputation points to post on the forum, so he intends to be more proactive in completing tasks recently.
However, after half an hour of grinding, he still hadn't found a suitable solo quest. Either it was too difficult, or he wasn't skilled enough to complete it and needed a more powerful mage to do it.
There were a few that he could do himself, but Ethan looked around and stared at the number of people for a long time without being able to pinpoint a single person.
The only thing that fits his needs is the group mission... And now he needs to accumulate more points quickly, because Lord Starfall told him that he will be busier in the days to come. Right now it's just an adaptation period. Everyone hasn't made any rash moves yet since the new guardian took office. After some things are tested, things will start to get interesting.
Ugh, this is such a hassle, I don't want to work. (Ethan's spitting out his
But if he doesn't hurry up and do the tasks now, it feels like it will be at least a year before he gets used to those heavy official duties. In fact, Lord Xingyun hasn't even given him all the documents to process or helped him solve some of them yet.
Do we really want to go?
Ethan asked himself this question.
He has severe social anxiety, but he is also tired of his uncontrollable social anxiety. He also wants to alleviate his social anxiety, but he used to resist it too much. Now that he has experienced social death more than once, he feels like he has inexplicably gained a little courage to try again.
Although this courage comes from countless social near-death experiences... let's give it a try anyway? Maybe this will gradually alleviate some of his social anxiety?
The feeling of not being able to control his blushing was terrible. He tried his best, but could only force out a few stuttering words. If he accidentally mispronounced a word, he would get stuck instantly. He was so embarrassed that he wanted to hang himself right then and there.
Ethan didn't want things to be like this. Once he left Selene and the affable Starfall, even when he encountered his colleagues from both sides, he still couldn't speak normally, which made him so anxious that he wanted to strain his throat.
He's not really mute. What if everyone actually thinks he is?
After much hesitation, Ethan decided to team up for the first time – a four-person squad – with the goal of investigating the recently surged hellish aura.
Although the mission description suggests that heretics are trying to summon the demons they worship, we still need to search carefully to see if the demons have successfully come to this world. If they have, we should send them back to hell. If they haven't been summoned, we should capture all the heretics and collect all the summoned creatures and summoning circles.
Starfall City has indeed become much quieter lately because of his activity. He handled a lot of official business before he went to the party, so he should be able to free up time to finish it. Even if there is a backlog of official business, it shouldn't be too much, right?
"Hmm, probably." Ethan thought somewhat uneasily. He tried to stop thinking about it for now; he'd leave the bad tomorrow to his future self, since it was all his own responsibility anyway.
Ethan was surprisingly in a hurry to meet up. After cleaning himself of the food smell, he put on his cloak, opened a portal, and went to the address sent by his teammates.
Because he wanted to try it out on his own for a while to lessen his social anxiety, but he wouldn't stare at people or try to strike up a conversation right away, Ethan kept his head down and met up with his teammates, conjuring up his ID for accepting the mission with his fingers to prove that he was one of the other people who had accepted the mission.
"Ethan?" A somewhat familiar female voice interrupted his reverie. Ethan looked up in confusion and saw Mary's kind, fleshy face.
Oh, it's Mary, the Mary who recently joined the magicians' gathering and sat next to him. She gives him a Selene vibe, and her children seem to be older than him.
“What a coincidence, Ethan.” Mary ruffled his hair, her smile as gentle as ever. “I never expected we’d be doing a mission together this time. Please take care of me.”
Ethan nodded silently, wondering to himself if his hair was easy to rub. Many women older than him loved to rub their hair.
Mary immediately recognized the cloak. After a few seconds of thought, she remembered that it was worn by a child who was not even as old as her own at a previous party. She tentatively asked him about it, and it turned out to be Ethan.
"I remember now," someone suddenly blurted out: "The socially awkward younger brother from the party before."
Ethan looked up when he heard this and saw Terry, Cassie, and a man named Dan whom Bertha had introduced at the party.
This was a game with acquaintances. Ethan was a little shy, but he also felt that his social anxiety wasn't so bad anymore, because they had met before and even had a meal together. Although he didn't participate much in the discussion, he had listened to a lot of their conversation.
Ethan visibly relaxed a bit. He hesitated for a moment, then took off his hood, still a little embarrassed and not daring to look up at people.
“Hahaha—” Terry put his arm around him and laughed, “I really didn’t expect this. I was also surprised when I saw Dan and Cassie Marie just now. We are really destined to meet. Let’s get started without delay.”
Why are you being so enthusiastic?! Weren't you just saying I'm socially awkward? Now that you know I'm socially awkward, aren't you being a little too enthusiastic? Ethan screamed inwardly.
Ethan, who temporarily took on the role of the witty commentator, was dragged off to do a mission after only a short time of complaining.
well--
"Sigh—" The middle-aged owner named Jack looked at the starry sky behind the transparent glass door with some worry, but his hands kept moving as he wiped the cups inside and out with a soft white cloth.
He's been a bit troubled lately. Lately, he's noticed a lot of suspicious people around here, all wearing white cloaks and dragging people along, talking incoherently.
One night, he got off work late at night and saw a group of people go into a dilapidated house. After the red light filled the whole house, the people disappeared, even though he had gone into the house and searched carefully with great courage.
He even thought he was possessed or seeing ghosts, and he even went to church to pray and ask for some holy water, but he still occasionally saw those white cloaks.
He had trouble sleeping because of this, and his usually rosy complexion was now covered in dark circles. He was looking tired and listless. When he talked to his child about it, the child suggested he make an appointment with a psychologist to see him.
He stopped mentioning it. Didn't he know whether he was sick or not? He even found a badge left behind by those white-cloaked monsters, and every time he saw it, it reminded him of what had happened.
Because of this incident, he became absent-minded all day, worried that those white-cloaked strange men were dangerous and would harm the residents here. However, when he told the police about his suspicions, the police told him to be less stumbling and asked if he was hallucinating.
I can't be bothered to talk to this kind of person. Doesn't he know whether he's a shill or not? If he dares to do it, his wife would kill him. That's how his wife's first love died. So, when his wife is heartbroken, she won't date someone who does shills. I guarantee that if his wife finds out he's a shill, she'll make sure he leaves with nothing and gets out immediately.
He wouldn't even let him see the child, even though the child was in his twenties or thirties and already capable of supporting himself. They didn't need to fight for custody, but Jack was certain that his child would abandon him, his old father, without hesitation and follow his wife.
No one believed him when he told them, so he showed them the badge, and everyone assumed he had bought a novel gadget. Jack could only keep this to himself, feeling anxious and uneasy all the time.
Jeka thought about it and sighed again.
"Is something on your mind, boss?" a lovely lady who had just entered the store asked curiously.
Looking at the lovely lady with a gentle smile in front of him—oh, of course, not as lovely as his wife—Jack suddenly felt a surge of urge to confide in her, or perhaps he had just had a few drinks and was a little tipsy.
“It was a while ago, on my way home from get off work, that I encountered a group of suspicious people…” Jack recounted what he had seen and his unease during that time, and once he started talking, he couldn’t stop, talking for half an hour until he was thirsty and kept drinking water: “…So that’s how it is, nobody believes me, my wife even suspects I’m drugged.”
He even sobbed a little as he spoke, and he looked genuinely sad. Despite the doubts from various people, not a single one believed him.
"Boss, can I see that badge?" The lovely lady rested her chin on her hand and thought for a moment before suddenly asking, interrupting Jack's sentimental musings. She smiled and said, "It certainly doesn't sound like a normal person. I can't rule out those crazy religious beliefs. You even said they're dragging people away. Has anyone gone missing recently?"
"You believe me?!" Jack was initially surprised, but after hearing her words, he shook his head: "No, no one has gone missing recently, but we have a lot of tourists here. What if they're arresting tourists?"
"A tourist...?" The lovely lady seemed thoughtful, her smile fading slightly. She made her request again, "Sir, may I see the badge you found?"
Faced with the lovely lady's second request, Jack considered himself a gentleman and of course would not refuse a request from a woman.
Jack pulled a white object from his pocket. He carefully opened the handkerchief, revealing a dark gold eight-pointed star badge, the very thing he had found that the white-cloaked monsters had lost.
"May I take a look?" the lovely lady asked politely.
“Of course.” Jack would never refuse such a small request, and he even stuffed the handkerchief into her hand as well.
After being given permission, Mary picked up the badge, held it up to the light, and noticed some barely perceptible, tiny dark lines.
Mary tapped lightly with her other free hand, producing a spark invisible to the naked eye. Using magic to detect it, she was certain that after destroying the magic circle used for concealment, the unbearable dark aura of the demon assaulted Mary.
Mary didn't even blink, a faint smile still on her lips. She tapped it again, and the churning black mist was completely swallowed up by the golden light, leaving no trace of discomfort.
"Can I have this?" Mary asked. "Or can I buy it?"
Jack pondered for a few seconds, as if he had made up his mind, and then waved his hand: "No need to buy it, it's a gift for you, otherwise my wife will nag me for being paranoid."
Mary thanked him and, as she left, casually blurred Jack's memory.
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Author's Note: Ethan has taken the first step in trying to overcome his social anxiety.
The team is set, and I'll probably be doing missions with these four a lot from now on. I'll also be working with them when writing the storylines and plot points. [starry-eyed]
The gentle and mature Mary, the passionate and warlike Trek, the ruthless and taciturn Cassie, and the silent but meticulous Dan [?] These are the tentatively defined personalities; we'll adjust them if they deviate later.
This afternoon, I saw someone in the men's dormitory next door almost jump off the building. I was so worried for the security guard who was pulling him back.
Good news: the report of plagiarism was successful. Bad news: only a link was provided, and that website has two of my works. [laughing and crying emoji]
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