Help! My Red-Headed Fire Mage Husband is the Game’s Biggest Boss!

Chapter 5

The guild space was abysmal.

Jin had spent countless hours mining and crafting his underground fortress into a sprawling masterpiece, only to be reminded of the grim reality of level-one guild spaces: they sucked. It was an insult to all his hard work.

The room before him was depressing—dusty wooden boxes, stray planks, and filthy rolls of fabric scattered across a cobblestone floor that probably hadn’t been swept since the game launched. A small fireplace crackled in the corner, a pathetic attempt at charm. It was serviceable, sure, but barely. Jin sighed. At least it was a safe zone.

Behind him, the five little idiots barged in like kids on a school trip. They spread out, poking at random crates and testing the rickety furniture. Jin didn’t care. The only thing on his mind was sleep.

“Why’s this place so gross?” Seiichiro was the first to complain. “Didn’t you say guild spaces would have food and water? Why is it so lame?!”

Jin waved lazily toward the vault embedded in the wall by the fireplace.

“You’ve got to spend coins and time to upgrade it. This is what you get for a fresh guild. The vault should have your starter resources, though. Try that.”

Seiichiro and Shin ran to the vault, practically fighting over who got to spin the heavy wheel lock first. When it didn’t budge, they both turned on Jin, glaring.

“Why won’t it open?! You said we’d have access! What did you do?”

Classic. Jin didn’t even bother sitting up. He used his jacket as a pillow and stretched out on the cold stone floor.

“Maybe it doesn’t work because you’re both yanking at it like children,” he muttered. “Or because the system’s slow. Who knows? Who’s your guild leader?”

Seiichiro crossed his arms. “You said we could trust you!”

“I thought you could,” Jin said, rolling onto his side. “Guess the system’s buggy. Anyway, it’s been a long day, and I’m sleeping.”

“What about food? Water? Cleaning this mess?”

“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem,” Jin mumbled, already half-asleep. “The system’ll catch up. You’re not starving anytime soon.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me! We trusted you!”

“Sounds like a mistake.”

Jin woke to an itching sensation on his left wrist. Groggy, he examined it by the firelight. A red mark of Sintas Galleia—a stylized flame encased in a circle—now decorated his skin. Pressing it brought up a semi-transparent system window.

Tabs for messages, store, quest log, and chat lined the bottom, though most were greyed out. Typical. He pressed the mark again, and the window vanished.

One unread message blinked in his inbox:

“Congratulations, Players! Update 8.7 is now live. New quests and features include:

• Chicken Derby adjustments.

• New world boss: Salazas.

• Loyal Scholar Quest now available!

Thank you for your continued loyalty and patience! ^.^”

Jin scowled at the chipper tone. Where was the explanation for this mess? Where was their welcome package? He rubbed his wrist and shut the message.

Bored, he tested the vault. Still locked. Figures. It wasn’t his guild. Sighing, he poked around the room instead, noting how the three idiots had fashioned makeshift beds from crates and fabric scraps. He almost felt bad for them. Almost.

When the others woke, Jin noticed glowing nameplates and the guild title “Raizing Mushrooms” hovering over their heads. He checked his own interface to ensure his guild title—“Underground 16 Floors”—was still hidden. The little idiots didn’t need to know about that.

Jin showed them how to access their inventory using their wrist marks. Watching them fumble with the system was almost entertaining. Almost.

“Maybe the vault will work now,” Jin suggested with a yawn.

This time, it did. Shin flung the door open and pulled out a tray of food.

“We’ve got food!” he announced proudly.

The tray was labeled Sushi for Two-shi. Jin’s stomach churned at the sight. He knew exactly who had crafted it. Taka Aoi, that cooking-obsessed snake, had haunted his early game days. This garbage was from Taka’s low-level experiments—inedible, useless, and cursed with bad memories.

Shin took a bite first, followed by Seiichiro. The results were instant: Shin grimaced but swallowed, while Seiichiro spat his out with dramatic flair.

“What the hell is this?!” Seiichiro shouted.

“It’s… not great,” Shin admitted.

Jin didn’t care. He grabbed a piece and ate it anyway. It tasted as bad as expected, but hunger didn’t leave him much choice.

After picking through the “meal,” the group counted their guild funds. Shin read the final total with far too much enthusiasm:

“45 gold, 87 silver, and 26 copper!”

Jin nearly choked. That was nothing. These idiots were broke.

“We’ll split it,” Shin declared. “Seiichiro and I will hold most of the gold—18 each—and the rest of you can split the leftovers. Jin, you’re fine with just silver, right?”

Of course, they’d leave him with crumbs. Jin forced a smile. “Sure. Silver’s fine.”

Later, Haruto quietly slipped him a copper coin, muttering, “For the ride to Silverledge. Thanks for covering us.”

The gesture caught Jin off guard. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

By the time the coins were distributed, the little idiots were already debating how to spend it—food, weapons, maybe booze. Jin tuned them out. His mind was elsewhere, plotting ways to ditch them and hit the nearest city bank.

“It might only be one copper, but Haruto elevated himself for being considerate. Then Jin remembered how the ‘oh-so-considerate NPC’ had flirted with him and left, so he lowered his elevation back down. Men were not to be trusted. Speaking of things not to be trusted, he had to work out how to get to the city bank. With the group all talking excitedly, he turned his attention back to the 5 little idiots.

“So now we have coins, we can go shopping, right? We can buy some food?”

“We can buy weapons!”

“I want to try drinking here! Do you think we can get drunk?”

“We should definitely buy food. This stuff is so bad.”

Shin stroked his invisible beard.

“We’ll go buy food. Jin, can we sell this food? You said we can sell things.”

Jin shook his head, once again radiating his godly aura of love and grace. They truly were blessed to have him.

“Our backpack slot hasn’t opened yet, so anything you want to sell, you’ll have to carry it there yourself. Anything you want to buy, you’d have to carry back too. Food should be okay, but there’s nowhere to cook here. Weapons are a little trickier because they’ll be bulky.”

Seiichiro nodded.

“That makes sense. We have to play by the rules until they realize they’ve made a mistake and we all wake up. We can afford good food, can’t we? We’re rich now…”

They were so far from rich that it hurt. Jin had a tiny budget. If the others wanted to eat well, he’d miss out. Still, just because it was expensive didn’t necessarily mean it was suitable for six humans.

“The top-end food can be up to 200 gold a piece. Street food is much cheaper, and it’s NPC-made. If we think about it, NPCs always have repeat customers—other NPCs you see standing there eating the food. Vendor Street will have food and drink.”

Rei sighed dramatically.

“200 gold! I want to eat a 200 gold meal!”

Seiichiro also didn’t seem happy with vendor food.

“Can’t we go somewhere nicer? We have gold now. Isn’t there a nice place in this city? Or don’t you know?”

Jin was still thinking about trying almost all the vendor food. He wasn’t keen on barbecued toad skewers, but he was definitely interested in trying the strawberry crepes—even if one crepe cost 50 silver.

“We could go for a walk and see if we can find somewhere. It might be late for some places, too early for others. Vendor Street closes at 11 p.m., and I don’t know what the time is now. Silverledge is mostly safe at night because of the magic from the Mage Tower.”

Shin waved his words off.

“Don’t worry, guys, we’ve got money now. Let’s go eat some good food!”