The wizard with a goatee was named Tony Ulea, around sixty years old, nicknamed "Old Tony."
His temples were graying, and there was a scarlet burn scar on his left cheek. The scar had a bizarre shape, like a twisted centipede crawling across his face—it was clearly a mark left by magic.
He wore a light blue wizard's robe, with no magical emblem on his chest, but instead an orichalcum-level metal badge. Barrett had adventured with him multiple times and had even saved his life once.
Though time and magic had both left deep marks on Old Tony, he always wore a cheerful grin, with an optimistic vibe that made people warm up to him easily. Barrett grinned back, spreading his arms wide to give his old companion a hug, then they shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries.
"And this lady is?" Old Tony turned his head toward EeDechi at Barrett's side, his gaze lingering on the orichalcum-level metal badge on her chest.
"Hello, I'm EeDechi, Barrett's captain." Without waiting for Barrett to speak, EeDechi extended her hand to shake with Old Tony.
Old Tony shook her hand and chuckled, "Becoming an orichalcum-level adventurer at such a young age! Your potential is boundless. Looks like Barrett's latched onto a real powerhouse." He winked at Barrett after saying that.
Dressed in plain black clothes, EeDechi said coldly, "Young? No, I'm way more mature than either of you."
"You do have a mature and efficient air about you," Old Tony agreed, but Barrett knew that Old Tony was probably thinking to himself, "Mature? More like stuffy and eccentric—how does she seem like she just stepped out of a monastery?"
Old Tony turned to Barrett and said, "Barrett, I heard you ran into some rotten luck on the edge of Mistwood in Baharuth—your dick got chomped off by a crocodile?"
He glanced down at Barrett's lower half, his eyes showing a mix of teasing and sympathy.
"NO... no way, where'd you hear that rumor?" Barrett shook his head hard.
Of course, it wasn't a rumor. While Barrett was hiking along the River Fra beside Mistwood, he'd slipped up in the simplest spot and got ambushed by a green-scaled short-snouted crocodile. Sure, he saved his life with his top-notch martial arts skills, but the part that hit a man's pride hardest got bitten.
It was a humiliating mishap—Barrett was mortified, mocked by other adventurers as the "Imperial Chief Eunuch." Luckily, during their later adventures, the wound got fixed by accident thanks to EeDechi's area healing spell that hit everything in range, friend or foe, and his cock regrew under the potent healing magic.
If Barrett had just hurt his hand, his foot, or even his head, he could've bragged later about his expert survival skills, snatching victory from the jaws of that green-scaled short-snouted crocodile. But no, it had to be that spot—he just wanted to bury the whole thing, because as a man, it was downright embarrassing.
"I bet it's no rumor. The traveling merchant Krenford told me about it. You know him—he's an honest guy, never lies except when it comes to business." Old Tony laughed cheerfully, the wrinkles bunching up at the corners of his eyes.
"Krenford, that ungrateful bastard! And after I saved him from a forest troll's maw—twice!" Barrett sighed and rubbed his forehead, finally getting why Old Tony, holed up in the Re-Estize's capital thousands of miles from Mistwood, knew all about this crap.
Barrett grabbed Old Tony's mage robe and yanked him toward a corner. "Come on, I'll show you a real big boy!"
His lower body's wound had long since healed back to normal, so naturally, he had to work hard to clear up the "rumor" now.
Old Tony and Barrett walked to a corner in the tavern, facing the wall. Barrett pulled down his pants a bit and showed it off.
Old Tony let out an "Oh" of surprise, then nodded. "Your treasure is definitely still there, way better than this old guy's. But calling it a 'big boy' might be a stretch, right? More like a 'medium boy'? You should drink more water, hold in some pee before dropping your pants for me next time."
Old Tony spouted these slightly raunchy words and laughed again. It seemed that even as he aged, the habits from his young adventurer days hadn't faded.
"Hah, by that logic, a donkey's cock would be the only one that counts as 'big.'" Barrett snorted coldly, not wanting to dwell on the topic.
Old Tony stared at the shiny silver metal badge on Barrett's chest and asked, "With your battle achievements, you should've been able to apply for promotion to Orichalcum long ago. Why are you still 'Mithril'?"
"This is fine for now. The higher the rank, the more hassles. For example, if a high-tier adventurer meeting only invites orichalcum-level and above, then I wouldn't have to come, right?" Barrett replied casually.
What he didn't say out loud was that as long as EeDechi, this ferocious powerhouse, was still orichalcum-level, he wouldn't feel right promoting to Orichalcum.
"The greater the power, the greater the responsibility—and the more gold. You need to understand that, or else you'll just be an ordinary adventurer your whole life. When you're old and can't lift a sword anymore, you'll regret it. Who can be an adventurer forever?" Old Tony rarely adopted the posture of an elder, earnestly advising.
He seemed to feel his tone was a bit too serious, so he switched gears. "What's up with that nun captain of yours? Which monastery did you drag her out of? With your seniority and experience, you should be the one calling the shots as captain. Don't cut her too much slack—hurry up and promote to Orichalcum. I swear on my thirty years of marriage: woman on top, man below? Feels all wrong."
Old Tony elbowed Barrett in the waist, totally serious.
"Shh~ Don't spout nonsense," Barrett nervously glanced toward EeDechi, seeing the adventurer captain curiously scanning the tavern, checking out the weirdly dressed adventurers around her, not noticing them at all.
Barrett let out a breath. "If she hears you say that, watch out—she'll rip your goatee clean off!"
"Ha, temper that bad?" Old Tony's goatee twitched a few times as he shook his head and chuckled. "Ah, those young adventuring days sure bring back memories. Enough of that—down some drinks later. Tonight's on me, we're not leaving till we're hammered."
"You treating?" Barrett smirked dismissively, "Tonight's the guildmaster's high-tier adventurer meeting—booze is on the house. I could claim I'm footing the bill too."
"Hmph, just you wait—I'll blow your mind!"
At the tavern's inner door, a girl who looked like a serving maid seemed to be calling for Old Tony. Old Tony said goodbye to Barrett, pushed through the bustling crowd of adventurers, and headed toward the maid.
Barrett went back to EeDechi's side, only to see the serious-faced girl milling around other adventurers, rudely fixating on the metal badges on their chests, like she was hunting for something.
A few adventurers, each clutching oak mugs, were huddled together drinking. They were swapping jokes with real zest when suddenly a head of short black hair shoved its way in, followed by the entire body attached to that black-haired head.
EeDechi jammed herself into the group of adventurers mid-lively banter, stared down each of their chest metal badges one by one, shook her head, then blank-faced, shoved her way back out.