Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist's Desk

Discussion in 'Roleplaying Games' started by AliceShiki, Jan 28, 2019.

  1. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    ((*hugs*
    *goes appraise*))
     
  2. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    My my, trying to carve with your feet? That's a very... Unusual method. Well, not like using your axe is any less unusual~ *giggles*

    Here is your reward though, 25 Large Copper Coins and 2 Small Copper Coins, as well as 4 guild points of course~

    Take care now~
     
  3. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    You made so many, but ended up giving them all to other adventurers? Well, I suppose they care more for the reward than you do...

    That said, 25 is still a solid amount, great job~

    Your reward will be of 7 Large Copper Coins and 5 Small Copper Coins, as well as 4 Guild Points of course~

    Take care Phini-chan, you certainly earned a good rest~
     
  4. michael.kx5

    michael.kx5 [Sloth Incarnate][Lewd Overlord][The mediator]

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    Rei approuched the reception desk after splitting up with Maya, and looked around for a free receptionist.
    She spotted Aria right as she finished processing another adventurer and approached her to hand in her report about her quest and the rogue adventurer's insignia.
    "Here is what happened during the quest, we were also attacked by some adventurer in the middle, here is his guild insignia"

    Rei's PoV
    As I recieve the quest to protect an adventurer named Maya through Aria, I saw the old man who registered me walk in right behind her with a shocked expression.
    After a moment he just shrugged, waved me and winked after mouthing the words "good luck".
    I waved back a bit and mouthed "Thank you".

    [OOC- Way's impression inside of Rei has improved, title "registration old man" evolved into "nice receptionist ossan"]

    Next I looked at the document that was passed to me with the quest.
    On it were written the client's -Maya- outward appearance, as well as where she will be waiting for the one who takes the request.
    I headed down the road towards the slums where the tavern was located - the place mentioned in the document.
    Once I reached the tavern I opened the doors, it seems my last visit left quite the impression since few were stupid enough to look in my direction for more than two seconds.
    I scanned the interior for the person in question...... there, found her.
    Near the wall table, there was a small girl with black hair and fox ears, who was dressed in a Miko styled dark short kimono with white long socks - a rare sight outside the Oni settlements which invoked nostalgic feeling in Rei - and had a fox mask hanging on the side of her head.
    Exactly as was described in the document.

    Rei made a streight line for the table Maya was sitting at and sat down across her, ordering a cup of green tea from the waitress on the way.
    When the green tea arrived short minutes later, Rei took a sip and then spoke to the other girl.
    "Are you Maya? The adventurer who needs an escort?" (Rei)
    "Oh, someone to protect Maya? Yay~
    He he he, soo, did you bring everything? Also, Maya didn't hear your name~ How's that?" (Maya)
    "My name is Rei.
    I have all I need on me." (Rei)
    "Thats great~
    Maya is always ready so lets go!" (Maya)
    "If you are ready then sure, let's go.
    I am just your escort, you make the calls.
    Ah, but that doesn't mean I can't chat a little on the way." (Rei)
    "Hehehe, Maya is making the calls, huh...
    Maya should hire someone more often, she likes this feeling~" (Maya)

    Maya makes few motions to warm up before jumping up and patting Rai on the shoulder.

    "Anyway, let us go then~" (Maya)

    There was a bloody palm print on that shoulder now...
    Rei looks at the bloody hand print on her robe for moment, then looks at Maya's hands which were full of bite marks, and still bleeding.
    This explains the need for an escort at least.

    "Your hands seems to be bleeding".

    Rei then takes out her spare bandage she uses as a sarashi.
    She can buy a new one later.
    "Take this, we don't want blood to get on the harvest"
    "Hehehe, don't worry, Maya will not dirty plants with it, they are too precious after all~

    When time comes, Maya will cover her hands with something. And its fun drawing on things with it~

    We should get going tho. As sleeping in mountains gets you a frostbite, you know? It wouldn't do if your hands ended up bitten by frost so much you would look like Maya~" (Maya)

    "No worries about that" (Rei)
    Rei made a small smug smile and put forth her open right hand facing upwards.
    A short while later a small flame appeared from it and started growing but Rei made it extanguish by closing her fist.

    "I can make us a bonfire" (Rei)
    As she said it, Rei was making a ''how about that?' looking face and thrust out her (nonexistent) chest.

    She heard some spitting and coughing sounds from behind her but it probably wasn't important.

    "Oh? Flame? Maya can do that too~ Except Maya's flames are not warm...

    Well, Shame. Still, wont see anything in dark so lets go. Maya hates sleeping in mountains, no matter how warm she is." (Maya)

    "Alright, let's be on our way" (Rei)
    Rei agreed anda starts walking alongside the fox-eared adventurer.
    For the record, Rei loved small fluffy animals and there were many wild foxes near her hometown.
    So Rei was very tempted to pat the other girl's head.
    Fortunately, she was good at controlling herself so she was only sending a few longing gazes at her hairtop.

    *Since the trip to the mountains was uneventful and boring it was skipped*

    After a couple days of traveling through the mountains, Rei and Maya arrived at the plains near the cave of the undead.

    "There, There! See? The red patch next to that zombie is the thing Maya came for~"

    Maya shouts, excited, as she rushes to the plants.
    Rei looked at the red patch Maya pointed to and had a wry smile at the energetic little client.
    'Are? Wasn't something weird about her statement? The red patch next to the........zombie!!!'
    For once Rei actually panicked a bit.
    "Stop! At least wait until I take care of the zombie!"

    Rei used body enhancement and lightning arts in order to catch up to her reckless client and overtakes her.
    She used the momentum from her initial rush in order to close the distance to the zombie and switched over to flame arts, coating her fist with flames and readying it to strike the undead.

    The strike pierced through the zombie's torso, while the flames began to eat away at its rotting flesh.
    Rei was feeling very disgusting as she had her hand inside the zombie's entrails and smelled it's putrid smell.
    She swore to herself to find some way to deal with these things some other way.

    When the zombie was completely burned away a couple minutes later, Rei looked back at Maya.
    "It is safe for now. Why did you rush ahead even though you saw the zombie next to it?"

    As Rei was obsessed with Zombie, Maya cried above burning Zombie mush covered Blood Lillies.

    "Why... They did nothing wrong... You cant just burn zombies next to Maya's snac... Next to flowers Maya needs!

    Sigh... Well, theres nothing Maya can do. Well have to do with whats left and look for more later... "

    Said Maya while wrapping her hands in her skirt and carefully collecting untainted plants.
    Rei was feeling a little awkward about ruining some of the flowers for the quest, she wasn't used to being careful of the environment when fighting or her new skills.
    Part of her was also very excited to try them out in live combat so she went overboard.
    She whispered a quiet "Sorry" and admonished herself to knock the enemy away from collection targets next time.

    'hmmm? Was it just my imagination or did she almost say snacks?'

    "Well, Anyway... Maya wonders where that second Zombie from the last time went. Welp, Maya doesn't really care~ Let us explore then! For each burnt, lets find two more to collect!"

    Maya cheerfully said as she hopped away in search of more blood lillies~
    Rei's head whipped around when she heard Maya's words.
    A second zombie?
    Ugh, maybe taking this request was a bad idea........well no use crying over spilled milk.
    This time she will protect her client AND the flowers.
    Rei made a new resolve as she follow Maya who was trying find a new patch of red flowers.

    After a short while Rei spotted a big patch, bigger than the one she ruined earlier.
    Thinking that with this she will redeem her earlier failure, she called Maya and points at the patch.
    "Hey look, aren't those the same flowers from earlier? There are even more of them this time"

    "Ohh? Maya can't see that well. Welp, we can come closer to take a look! But if they are, There's definitely enough for Maya~

    Keep an eye for Zombies, alright? Maya saw two last time, but it was dark and they were close to cave, sooo, there could be many more around~"

    Rei nods and says
    "Umu, I shall keep a lookout to not let anything get close".
    And soon after starts to scan the surrounding for any signs of undead presence using her Ki.
    It was a skill she often used before "that" to detect hidden enemies ambush.
    However the range was much shorter now, covering only a few meters in each direction.
    For some reason she couldn't feel anything coming from Maya's body.
    It was definitely there yet there were no sign of any life-force residing in it.
    'it isn't my business...and she is my client...and my intuition is also telling me to ignore it.....I guess I should just leave her be, for now'

    While Rei was considering whether to bring up the topic or not, her Ki picked up a foreign presence.
    This snapped Rei out of her musing and she sharpened her senses to follow the presence to it's source, where she saw a new zombie walking towards them from the direction of the cave.
    She poked Maya by her shoulder and pointed towards the zombie while whispering "Should I take it down now while it's still far from us?"

    "Ehh, Maya does't really care. Just don't get any Zombie bits on her flowers please~"

    Saying so, Maya got to harvesting the ones before her.

    "Got it, in that case I will go take care of it real quick and rush back. Just scream for help if anything else shows up in the meantime"

    Rei propped herself and activated body enhancement and lightning arts again, this time at half the output as to not get carried away by the momentum.
    A couple seconds later she arrived near the zombie, skidding to halt a meter to the side and threw at it a stone she picked up on the spot.
    It didn't do much damage to the undead buy it did turn it's attention to Rei, which was exactly what she aimed for.
    They were a sufficient distance away from Maya who was currently busy collecting the flower patch, and the zombie's attention was now turned away from her direction, so there was no risk of ruining the flowers this time.

    Next, Rei activated lightning enhancement at full output and began to close the distance to the zombie.
    This time she tied up a small cloth around her mouth and nose to block the disturbing smell.
    Furthermore, in order to limit the time of contact with the zombie to the limit she used quick knifehand strikes, cutting away at it's neck, and limbs, thus rendering it immobile and harmless.
    It was also since the last one was thrashing around trying to bite off her head while it had her arm stuck in it's chest.
    Once the zombie's body was completely dissmembered, Rei switched her enhancement to flames and begun burning away the helpless corpse.
    Soon enough the whole corpse was just ashes, and Rei was done with her prey.

    Relieved her plan worked as intended and proud of herself, she looked back in Maya's direction...

    Although it was a bit far too tell, Rei thought she saw Maya eat one of the flowers she was collecting, when Maya noticed Rei was looking at her she stopped chewing and.put away the half eaten flower away near the others.
    ''This girl is getting more and more mysterious, are all fox-kin like her?"

    She started to slowly walk towards Maya's direction.

    "Yay~ We are finished here~ Next, we will go... Ugh... Where is Maya supposed to go?" (Maya)
    Rei sighed a bit and with a dry smile said
    "You need to collect lupine grass, if I remember right it grows on almost every plain and has a tendency to attract wolves. Maybe we should look for sign of wolves and follow their tracks?"

    "Ah... Yes! Plains~ Well, it is time for Maya to cut some weeds~"

    Maya said as half eaten Lillie appeared in her mouth again~
    Suddenly, someone caught Maya from behind~

    "Ohh?"

    Before she could say anymore, Maya's throat was slit~

    Rei was taken by surprise by the sudden scene of blood spurting out of Maya's throat.
    She stood in shock for a full second, processing what just happened and the minor fact that she probably failed her quest just barely registered at the back of her mind.
    Towering over Maya's body Stood a man, in tattered clothes and an infested slash wound stretching across his shoulder.
    He was holding a small knife in his other hand and was muttering something like a madman.
    He had dry lips and sunken cheeks - clear signs of dehydration and starvation, he probably wants to steal their rations.

    However to Rei none of that mattered now.
    He tried to killed her client right before her very eyes, something that was completely unforgivable for a former bodyguard.
    Futhermore, that man killed Maya for no good reason.
    Although she knew her for only a short time and she was certainly a very wierd girl, Rei felt like she wasn't a bad person and might even call her a friend, her first friend in this form.

    Her rage started to overflow and ignited something that she was very familiar with.
    "YoU BaStArD!!!"
    Rei has entered her Berserker mode.

    As Rei entered battle stance, ready to pounce on the man in front of her in blind rage, suddenly a hand - Maya's hand grabbed at the man's hand.
    The next moment the man screamed in pain, and like angry beast he kicked Maya's body away and glared at her.

    This served to further fuel Rei's rage that was starting to fade away when she realised Maya might be alive - somehow - and she rushed forward with the speed and power of her enhanced body, powered by both her Ki and the berserker mode.

    In just a moment, Rei closed the distance between them and landed a full powered strike against the man's head, sending his tumbling unto the ground head first.
    Normally the fight should have been over by that point but the point stood up like nothing and glared at her this time.
    It was like he didn't feel any pain...... or maybe he was in so much pain it didn't register......
    Doesn't matter, she just needs to kill him and burn his corpse.

    The crazed man started chanting a fire element spell Rei recognised from a past encounter with Mages.
    She wasn't about to let him finish it.
    Stepping into close range, Rei released an unending barrage of flaming fists.
    Even after the man stopped chanting and was thrown back, Rei chased after him and continued to punch at his body wherever she could.
    Rei's hits, powered by the berserker mode boosted enhancement, broke the man's ribs which pierced his lungs and other internal organs.
    Unfortunately for him they missed his heart, had it killed him instantly he wouldn't have felt the agony and despair that was about to hit him.
    While Rei's punches were hitting the man a certain item fell off and rolled over in Maya's direction, the man's adventurer plate.
    Rei who didn't notice this in her fury, continued to punch away at the man who was helplessly lying on the ground.
    When she was sure all of the bones in his body were broken, Rei clenched her hand over the man's throat and started burning him alive.
    The man who was unable to resist being burned alive, screamed in pain and agony.
    After a while the screams stopped, and the man's body started to carbonise in the fire, turning into coal.
    Once the corpse was completely burned away and turned into a black charred human shaped object, Rei let go of what was left of the man.
    Her rage was sated, and her berserker mode has deactivated.
    Rei looked at the man she killed but she didn't feel any regret or remorse.
    The man deserved it and he was going to kill both of them.
    She turned around and started walking towards where Maya was laying down, hoping to find her still alive...... If she was alive in the first place that is.
    Once she calmed down and analyzed what she saw, heard, and sensed, she came to a certain hypothesis.
    Rei arrived to where Maya was thrown, looking a broken doll with cut strings, she bent down and looked into her eyes and asked - "Hey, can you talk?"
    "...."

    Maya's lips moved yet no words came out~ Only wheezing sound escaped her sliced throat. Complicated expresion formed on her face before she nodded at some of her limbs bent in strange way and looking at Rei hopefully.

    Seeing the girl who was by all right should be dead, making attempts to talk with her slices throat and making a complicated expression and then nodding at her bent limbs and making hopeful eyes, Rei was convinced of her hypothesis.
    She nodded at Maya and started bending the limbs back into their proper places, on the way she also stored all of their harvested loot into her poach. Might as well help Maya complete her quest if possible.
    Once she was done setting bones and such into place she looked at Maya's eyes and asked "Can you move now? If not I will carry you on my back"

    Maya smiled at Rei as she fixed her limbs, but as she tried to take a step, Maya had to stop herself. Pointing at sun, she made big circle with her hand until she pointed at it again and then walked fingers towards the plains.

    This time Rei had a confused expression on her face and tilted her head to the side.
    "...are you asking to get carried back to the plain before the sun sets?"

    Maya shakes head as she, sits down, then points at the sun to make a circle only to stand up again as her finger reaches sun again and walks fingers towards the plains.

    After Maya's little show, she hopefully looked at Rei.

    While Rei wasn't fully sure she understood what Maya wanted she tried her luck again.
    "You....want.me to make a camp and a bonfire before the sunset? ....... wait, you are not asking me to burn down the plain are you?"
    Then a sudden realization hits Rei
    "You are saying we should camp for the night in the plains?"

    Maya's hand smacked her face, making fresh spur of blood fly all around... Looking at the mess she just made, Maya laid on it and pretended to sleep~

    After a while, she pointed at herself, pretended to sleep again, then at sun, made circle and as her finger pointed at it again, walked fingers away.

    "Umm, you will be dead once the sun sets or something, and.you need to.......eat a blood lily?" (Rei)

    ...

    Maya gave up and started to ignore Rei.

    She took out a piece of Withered Wriggling Vine and munched on it as she rested.

    Taking a little offence at the resignation Rei swore to get it right this time, if only just to salvage her pride.
    After thinking a bit she tried again.
    "Maybe you need a full day to sleep and recover and tomarow we will head to the plains?"
    *Ignored*

    While Maya was blatantly ignoring her, Rei gave up and lied down on the blood-free space next to her.
    From experience she knew that the rebound effect from using Berserker mode should be taking effect right about......now.
    Just as she expected, intense muscle pains assaulted her body.
    Originally the pains were suppose to last an entire day but thanks to a breathing technique she learned a long time ago, she was able to reduce the time it took her to body to recover from the rebound to about 8 hours - one night.
    Since Maya doesn't seem to intend to move anywhere for the time being, Rei decided to use the time to use the breathing technique and cultivate some Ki in the process.

    Once the sun shines upon their bodies, Maya woke(?) up and seemed to have tried saying something, however since her voice didn't work, she gave up and just started to walk ahead in the direction of the plain.
    Rei, who finished recovering and cultivating, soon followed.

    The trip back the plains was peaceful and uneventful, though Maya's facial expression which was bordem mixed with pain, told another story.
    Rei marked.in her mind to get this girl to a doctor or a healer when they get back to town.......can they even treat her? As far as she could tell Maya was either a high rank undead with its own free will and sentience, or some sort of spirit possessig an already dead body.

    Rei could not ignore the painful expression on Maya's face any longer.
    "Maybe I should carry you on my back after all? You would just need point me in the direction you wish to go"

    Maya looked like she wanted to say something but settles for a smile instead.

    Rei took Maya's smile as a "thank you, but no need" or something similar.
    She felt a bit......okay, quite guilty about letting that rogueish adventurer get so close to them and hurt her client.
    She took out andastared at theh the piece of wood that signifies one was an adventurer which fell out the man's pocket during her rampage.
    She picked it up earlier before going after Maya.
    She better take it to the guild during her report.
    He attacked two other adventurers with the intent to kill after all, this isn't a minor issue that should be glossed over.
    Rei put away the evidence back in hidden compartment of her outfit, near her heart.

    Soon, they arrived at a place with lupine grass growing in patches all over the place, so Maya picked up her pace.
    She probably wanted to finish this quest and return to town as fast as possible.

    Rei prayed really hard nothing would happen this time, but alas what happened twice would happen thrice, and the gods didn't answer her prayers.
    Near one of the patches there was a lone wolf, a rare sight to see out without their pack.
    If it was only one then Rei could easily take care of it by acting it away with her killing intent.
    Unlike with undead and some humans, it worked wonders on animals who were loyal to their instincts.
    Rei tapped Maya's shoulder and told her "Wait just a moment".
    Next she stepped forward in front of her and fully released her killing intent.
    The poor beast who received the undiluted killing intent on full blast from Rei, jumped on it feet, stared at the young looking Oni, and ran away at full speed.
    Rei turned to Maya and smiled a bit "okay, now it is safe to collect them"

    When Rei looked at Maya and smiled reassuringly, Maya could only give back bitter smile and get back to work harvesting every piece of lupin grass in sight.

    Rei stood by and kept a look out for anymore wolves in area while Maya was busy collecting lupine grass.
    Fortunately for them, it seems that the wolf from earlier was the only one around for now.
    Keeping a close eye on their surroundings, Rei initiated a small chat
    "So, you are not exactly alive right? You didn't die from blood loss or seem to feel any pain, but you don't feel like an immortal or undead either. Are you some sort of spirit possessing that body?"

    Maya turned to Rei, eyes unfocused, teeth bared and growling~ Well, her attempt at growl was more of a hiss due to current circumstances...

    When Rei heard a hissing sound and turned around to look she almost bust a gut laughing at Maya's obviously failed attempt at imitating a zombie but she held it in, and tried to go along with the joke with a twitch in her cheek.

    "Oh so you are an undead? Wow so scary~"

    "..."

    As Maya was sulking, Rei was awkwardly scratching her cheek.
    Obviously this did not go well.
    Rei patiently waits for Maya to finish harvesting while continuing to keep guard.

    As Maya finished gathering all the grass she needed, she may have kept adding more to what Rei carried until she seemed uncomfortable. Or it may have been coincidence~

    Anyway, as Maya was satisfied with her revenge, she nodded and pointed the way to guild.

    Rei looks at the huge amount of grass stacked inside her pouch which was starting to overflow, and decided to overlook the little prankster.

    When Maya pointed towards the city's direction Rei nodded back and started walking a short distance ahead of her in case they get attacked by wolves attracted to the lupine grass on the way.


    As they arrived in town, Maya showed Rei where to put all the herbs and went to make a report.

    Rei emptied her pouch from all the herbs and went to report her quest as well as the rogue adventurer.
    Even though she survived since I allowed my client to get hit by a suprise attack, I probably fail the quest?
    @AliceShiki
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2019
  5. MrAconter

    MrAconter Well-Known Member

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    [ Retrieve my Great Great Grandfather Long Lost Treasure! ]
    Having been called by the supervisor Theodore, Bob made his way to the guild in order to meet both the man in question and another adventurer. As soon as he entered the tavern Bob went to ask the bartender whether Theodore had already arrived. However, before he had the chance to, a sonorous voice shouted at him: "Bob, over here!"

    As Aconter was standing in the Guildhall with the Supervisor Theodore he saw Bob Entering and called him over. As all three were together and discussed their next steps to head out. First they would buy Supply´s and then out in the Direction of the Rainband Tower.

    It did not take long for Bob to procure enough provisions for the trip. The ghosts did not eat anything, after all. He himself did not care about the taste, so he just bought the cheapest rations he could find. And so, short after, Bob found himself waiting before the gates for Aconter and Theodore.

    As the three went their ways Aconter went to the nearest Food stall for Preserved food and bought enough for two Weeks, he also Stocked up on Arrows and bought another ten Arrows just to make sure. He also bought two water bags one big for travel and one smaller for late night operations. He went to the Gates and saw Bob and Theodore with a large bag over his shoulder.

    And so, the trio went on their way and uneventfully arrived at the first location: The Kuro's Mountain Crossing Service. There, the blac-haired nekomi was already happily flaunting his prowess to other customers. Though, in his defence, he did have the qualifications.
    But at the same time, his fees also were not the lowest ones around and Bob, the miser he was, sure did not want to pay. Thankfully, as if he had known Bob's plight, Theodore just coldly snorted and went to negotiate the price.

    After Theodore got a affordable price from Kuro he handed her the Money and they went on their way. As soon as they crossed the Mountain range they headed further south to the "Rainband Tower". While they traveled they noticed that there were three Thieves following them. Aconter suggested that they should speed up and he would set a Trap for them and deal with the Issue.

    Bob nodded almost immediately after hearing that suggestion. After all, it was not him who noticed those thieves. And why?
    'Stop chasing those butterflies, goddamn it!' He cursed the dumb ghosts who should have been on the lookout.
    'I really should up them soon!' he complained.

    Bob and Theodore both went up ahead. Theodore looked back but Aconter was already gone! Aconter used the Shadow of a Tree to move atop it by using "Shadow Navigation".
    He placed two Arrows next to him and put one on the spring of his Bow. As the Thieves drew close they noticed that one of their targets was now gone. . . a hush in the air and one *plop* later one of the Thieves lay dead on the ground with an Arrow through his right Eye.
    They darted left and right to spot the Attacker but another hush in the wind later the second Thiev died without seeing who did the dead.
    The last Thiev tried to run but made the mistake to hide in the shadow of a nearby rock. The last thing he noticed was a red line on his neck and all he could do was issue a gurgling sound. Aconter whistle to let Bob and Theodore know he was done.

    'Already?' Bob thought. It had not been long since Aconter disappeared out of their sight. Theodore, as startled as Bob suggested they should head back slowly and covertly, just in case. But their caution was put to naught as three dead bodies lied there, shock still visible on their faces.

    Aconter said to the two: "Just some small fishes who did not knew better who to follow and who not to" as he said that he pulled the Arrow out of the skull of one of the Thieves and suggested that they looted them for any valuable goods as he would retrieve his shot Arrows and clean his dagger.

    "Sure!" The duo replied automatically before looking for any valuables the thieves might possess.

    It took a while, but after nearly stripping their corpses clean, the only things they had found was a couple of copper coins and some rusty knives.
    "They are dirt poor. Even more than adventurers." Theodore commented.

    Aconter nodded to that remark and said: "Poor and unskilled, a real Thiev should know better then to walk open on a street and follow their targets, they should have followed either from further away or hide in the vicinity" after that he suggested to look on the map and decide on where to head next since they were ever so close to the "Rainband Tower"

    And so, without any further interruption, the trio arrived at the marked location.
    "Well, it should be somewhere around here." Theodore said as he sat down refusing to do anything further.
    'Well, he is here only to supervise us, after all.' Bob thought as he summoned his three ghosts and ordered them to look for the treasure. In the meantime, he took out a spade out of his backpack and started to dig. Could not leave it to the ghosts, they were dumb after all.

    As Bob started to dig around Aconter crouched down and felt the earth beneath him but could not sense anything nearby. He offers to switch with Bob since physical labor was more his thing than standing around.

    As he was watching Aconter dig, the only thing that came to Bob's mind was: 'Where does he get all that energy?' It was a wonder. He still kept going, nearly tirelessly. Or was it perhaps that all those naps made Bob weak?
    Nevermind that. As Bob was deep in thought, one of those three ghosts made itself useful for once. It seemed it found a strange cave underground.
    The problem was, they would not be able to dig through the rock layer. And so, Bob informed his companions of his findings while he tasked the ghosts to search for the entrance.
    'Really, how did they become so useful, suddenly? Before they chased butterflies instead of thieves and now their IQ suddenly skyrocketed!'

    After Bob informed Aconter he said: "He only needs to find a small hole in the Passage and as soon as it gets dark outside i can move into it and get what is inside out here" after he said that he wonders if these beings could really find something like that down there.

    Nodding to Aconter, Bob explained him his ability and went to sleep. It was only an hour after, that Bob's soul entered the mental plane. There, within the violet-bluish void, he separated a portion of his soul. Sadly, the portion could not see in the material plane, but it could still command the ghosts and quicken the search.
    The three little ghosts gathered around the portion and circled happily. As soon as he would supervise them directly they became both partially sad and happy. It was like seeing a kid being downcast that their parents did not believe it and at the same time happy they would spend more time with it.
    That said, the ghosts did do a proper work and a small crack was found in a forest nearby.

    After Bob found a crack in there we moved to that location and waited until it was dark enough for Aconter to use the "Shadow navigation" and went inside, it was really dark inside but that was ok since Aconter could find his way around in dark places since he could make out shapes and movements in the dark, it took him about two to three hours to find a peculiar place that had two large Collums like pedestals with two things atop it. He went closed and found it be a piece of paper and a metal object, he grabbed those two things and made his way out and presented his findings to Bob and Theodore.

    It was said, that the treasure was to be found, if it existed, and delivered. But nothing said they could not look at what it was. And so, filled with curiosity, Bob blew the dust off the paper, which had already became yellow and wrinkly with passage of time. The letters were, albeit with some difficulty, still readable.

    "Those who seek wealth and knowledge be warned it is protected by a being that is neither alive nor dead and crosses time as a mountain but still moves to crush those that trespass into its Domain, what you seek beats like the hearth of newborn child but still runs cold as stone"

    Bob read the words aloud. Below them was depicted a map of what seemed like the Demonic Volcano with a big red cross on its outskirts.

    'Another treasure?' Bob thought as he looked at the other item.

    Aconter cleaned the second treasure in front of Theodore and Bob and it turned out to be a Diadem with a big ruby and embedded into it was a black star like jewel it looked magnificent.
    It seemed like they had found the Treasure they were supposed to retrieve but that was only one of the two. Aconter said "Well now we have one of them, what do we do about the second one ? I don´t believe we should head where the map tells us to go. No offense here but i think we are not prepared for what waits for us there."

    "Agreed!" Bob nodded. He had no intention to wander around that place, even if it was just an outskirts. Not to mention looking for a lost treasure that was potentially guarded by a golem. Ruminating over what to do, Bob looked at Theodore.

    Theodore looks at the two and says:"We retrieved the treasure that was indicated to be here anything more was not specified by the Quest giver so we should head back and report the Success of the Quest!" neither Bob nor Aconter denied that they Succeeded in the Quest but the next map left them with anticipation about the days to come.
    @AliceShiki @MaliMi
     
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  6. Otaku108

    Otaku108 Active Member

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    After asking around town Lucas managed to find a map that he committed to memory. Not too far from here were some plains that the kind cat-girl from the Guild's Reception had mentioned. 'Who would have guessed even cat-girls existed in this world, I wonder if I'll find a bunny-girl too?' Once again he shook his head from his useless thoughts and reminded himself of his task at hand.

    "Shouldn't be too hard to get there. I wonder how many I should pick though." he thought out loud and with a shrug he started walking. While it wasn't that far to the plains he still managed to take a couple of days as several times something new and interesting caught his attention. Often making notes of the more useful plants and animals, running across old camp sites and discarded broken tools he enjoyed pondering their uses or if they were repairable.

    By the second day he had arrived on the plain and saw a few dense patches of flowers scattered about in various sizes, shapes, and colors. Hadn't seen the Henbane yet but he figured they would be one of these patches and continued his walk.

    "This looks right, according to the description, bright green with a yellow flower. I kind of miss my sense of smell now, then again these were supposed to have hallucinogenic properties so I will just be glad I'm not susceptible." thinking it better not to dwell on what is lost and instead focus on what he could now do Lucas began carefully harvesting the flowers. "Hmm, now that I think about it I didn't bring a basket and more over it took me a couple days to get here. Putting these in my backpack would probably spoil them too."

    While picking the flowers he decided to stop at 50, making 5 bouquets of 10 flowers each. He only had so much space in his internal chest cavity where his soul crystal resided after all, but he also tried using a bit of ice magic to cool the internal compartment down so as to slow down the wilting. It was the best solution he could come up with to ensure he could successfully complete the task.

    Not wanting to take much longer he started his way back along the same route but still managed to spot a few things that he somehow missed on the way here. He also noted some goblin tracks along the way, he was not a tracker so didn't have confidence on following them, plus he had no idea how many there were but it was obvious there were more than a few.

    "I'm not sure I could handle more than a few goblins right now, just one or two of them were a handful for me before. Best mention this in when I make it back, looks like they're headed west, I think that's where Daegon's Dungeon is?" Lucas decided to keep on track the rest of the way and took considerably less time returning to report.

    "Hi, so I finished gathering these flowers for this task, I hope they are acceptable" Lucas places the 5 bouquets of Henbane on the counter from inside his chest plate, still slightly chilled but he felt his magic had definitely been nearly depleted.

    "By the way, I noticed a bunch of tracks that looked like goblins headed for the dungeon to the northwest. I don't know for sure but it looked like a large number, but I'm not sure if that's of any importance or not, just wanted to let the Guild know."

    OOC: I was out of town for the rest of the week after posting this and noticed I never got a reply, might have just gotten lost among the throngs. Hope it's not too late, but totally understandable if it's not accepted, I can just do another one ;) Happy Friday!
    @Way @AliceShiki
     
  7. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    ((I replied here actually! >.<

    https://forum.novelupdates.com/posts/4701094/

    Either way, any report delivered before Monday would count, so no worries~))
     
  8. Otaku108

    Otaku108 Active Member

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    ((I'm sorry it didn't give me a notification and I didn't do a very detailed check, that's my fault, thanks!))
     
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  9. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Maya-chan doesn't seem to be particularly discontent with it, so I'll consider the request cleared~

    If you think the request wasn't properly cleared though, you can always give your share of the reward back to Maya-chan~

    In any case, the reward is of half of what Maya-chan would earn from her quest, plus 5 Large Copper Coins so... It's 8 Large Copper Coins, as well as 4 guild points of course~

    As for that adventurer... This is a bit unusual, the description seems to match the adventurer the guildmaster put a bounty on, but a C-rank member shouldn't be carrying a wooden badge... Can I take a look at it?

    ((*pokes @Hirame too*))
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2019
  10. A5G_Reaper

    A5G_Reaper [DCLXVI, sohyee, and iampsyx's cute imouto]

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    ((Should've made that clearer~))
     
  11. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    My my... Just what's up with fairy tales these days?

    First we discover bigfoot, now we find out a family's treasure that was most certainly a lie to show off was actually real? I'm thoroughly impressed~

    Well, you two earned your reward, please take the 9 Large Copper Coins and divide them as you see fit. Each of you also gets 2 guild points~

    Take care now~

    ((*pokes @MaliMi too*))
     
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  12. michael.kx5

    michael.kx5 [Sloth Incarnate][Lewd Overlord][The mediator]

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    ((Oh, I didn't know about the badge changing materials according to ranks, which was kinda stupid of me considering all the AG in other isekai having the same system. Should I edit it to bronze?))
     
  13. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    ((C-ranks actually have a silver enchanted badge that breaks if its owner dies, so you'd have a cracked badge~

    I was going to just roll with the wooden badge thing and then say the guy was using his old badge for sentimental values and what not~

    You can edit it if you prefer though~))
     
  14. michael.kx5

    michael.kx5 [Sloth Incarnate][Lewd Overlord][The mediator]

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    ((Nah, let's go with the sentiments. Sounds good to me.))
     
  15. Unreachable Hope

    Unreachable Hope Unspecified, Wandering and Doubtful Member

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    @Razogul, @Unreachable Hope
    Coming back from his quest, Cinis sighed as he looked at Raz, remembering what happened during the whole trip, lot of unexplainable things happened according to Cinis, some stuff seemed to be... weird as well.
    In the end, it still ended up well, none of the two got injured or anything along those lines, if that isn't a perfect quest despite passing through the cave of the dead and remembering a possible passage through there. Still, they were rather lucky, even if it was crowded, most of the monsters inside were weak and slow... strangely. Now that he thought about it, it was a bit suspicious. Oh well. The most important stay Agral.

    "Alright, Aria, we are back from our quest, and here is our report... good luck."
    "Mmmmm... first, we have to get to Agral which is rather far. I suppose we will get to go to Hero's Port, then take a boat and meet the mermaid mages and advisors... One thing we can assume from the quest is that it only affects merfolk otherwise they would not ask for our help, would they?"
    Cinis said as he rubbed his chin, afterwards, he thought about they cross the mountain range toward the South of Ternus as it was as well an issue.

    "Mmmm... we basically only have two choices, get to cross the rivers or pass through the caves of the dead to go further into the south, to reach Hero's Port... your opinion ?"
    One was expensive, the former, one was basically almost a suicide mission, the latter.

    "Hmm, I suggest we go through the cave of the dead. We'll save our money and who knows what fortune we may be bestowed on our way out?" Raz says this due to him wanting to save more money.

    "Besides, if worst comes to worst, we can always backtrack and go with the former plan! What do you think?"

    "I agree. If we could make maps of this place as well, we could make money... but that is an extremely dangerous area. It is said that this cave has been a source of troubles since centuries as well we can find giant corpses... basically, giant undeads. So we will have to be extremely sneaky about it, or our chances of dying are... extremely high."

    Cinis still wanted to go there despite all his arguments that was basically saying 'Don't go there', but he just wanted to share informations, so he can be sure that Raz will not regret going there with him.
    "We could literally court death, haha."

    Despite saying this, he slowly began to walk toward the south, to the caves of the dead.

    Going along with Cinis, he nods and says, "Indeed, this could prove useful to find a route that has less undead to pass along in the future. We could potentially help future adventurers coming through here."

    After traveling for a while, they arrive in front of the cave of the dead. Raz looks at it and wryly smiles.

    "It seems like this will be a very sneaky mission, let's be very careful and try not to disturb them unless it's absolutely necessary."

    Putting the wooden cane on his back to avoid making noises, Cinis thought they should not wait for night. True, at night, they might wander outside, and there would be less of them, but.
    It meant it would be harder for them to simply enter in the caves which why in his opinion, getting in during daylight was a better idea.

    "Let's... create some hand signs, you know to stay silent when we enter, for example, when one of us raise his thumb, it means that we can go on, when the index is raised, we need to stop and so on. What do you think about it ?"
    As he slowly approached the caves' entry, Cinis felt his heartbeat slightly quickens as he thought about everything that could happen. He preferred to stay very near the walls in case something happens.

    "I agree, it would be very painful to be surrounded by just talking. Okay, raising the thumb to keep going, and when the index finger is raised, stop. This seems very good."

    Raz looks towards the cave and asks Cinis, "Should we stick ourselves on the walls as we pass through? It could prove useful due to taking way less space inside. Also, be very careful where we step, I'm not sure if there are any traps of some sort in there."

    Looking inside a bit, some nervousness comes in his heart, but he steadies it after a bit.

    "No time to waste, the more time we waste, the less time we have to get out of there."

    "Let's stick to the wall, each of us on a different one, so we can see each other more easily and have a better view to avoid ambushes."

    Taking a deep breath, he entered and stick to the right wall, creeping toward the deepest abyss of the caves.
    It should be rather dark inside, hopefully, for now, it seemed that there were no undeads at the entrance, of course, it was only the entrance, the light was still rather near, that is why.

    "Alright... I think we will probably stay a few days to get out of the caves, as we need to be extremely careful."

    Now, he would not say any word, they needed to keep quiet in this gloomy and silent cave.

    Nodding, Raz goes to the left wall and starts going inside the gloomy and silent cave, making sure to not make any sound. There was an ominous air inside from what he could feel.

    Thinking in his head, "Be calm and quiet and we should get out of here fine... just be calm and quiet." Repeating this for a while, he manages to keep his composure and makes sure to match his steps with Cinis.

    After a few hours, Raz hears some noise and raises his index finger to Cinis.
    Nodding his head, Cinis drew his crossbow and his Khophesh, as silently he could. Since he could partially see in the dark, he began to observe around the two of them, it was expected that the undeads were more deeply into this path.

    He hesitated, should he continue to slowly advance or suddenly jump toward the noises and slash at the thing? Cinis sighed and raised his thumb but pointed to himself say, in others words, only him should advance. How much distance was there between the monster and them was a question?

    Around thirty feet away otherwise he would be able to see it. He just needed to advance a few feet to see if it was there. Just a few seconds, he needed a few seconds.
    One feet, two feet, three feet... and he could see a shape, his arm suddenly raised and a bolt was launched from the crossbow, it flew, sunk into the darkness and... a blunt sound could be heard, a corpse, was it a zombie or something along those lines? Then... it groaned and it began to crawl toward Cinis and Raz, slowly, they could easily avoid it by walking around it...

    'A good aim, eh.', the bolt lodged in the zombie's head, all they needed was to crush its head and retrieve the bolt.

    Seeing that the bolt was lodged in the zombie's head, Raz got it out as quietly as possible. While getting it out, the bolt went around the brain and swiftly put an end to the zombie's undead life. Handing it over to Cinis, he nods and goes back to his wall and starts advancing again.

    Venturing hours more inside, Raz feels his skin shiver, as if his instincts were telling him to get the hell away from where they were. However, calming down, he put his index finger up for both of them to stop.

    Shortly afterward, a few skeletons with some rusty armor and weapons pass through without them noticing Cinis or Raz. Seeing they're gone, Raz puts his thumb up.

    Raz thinks to himself, 'Dear God, that was frightening! There is more undead than I originally thought!'

    'Fortunately, some undeads lack senses... otherwise, we would have been screwed up.'
    As he expected, there was a lot of undeads, or to be fair, he expected more undead than that, true, there is some that appear there and here, but what did they saw? No more than some dozens of undeads. Compared to what he expected, it was not much.

    Perhaps his sense of numbers was messed up, maybe. Nevertheless, it was what he honestly thought. To him, the cave was supposed to be massive, for now, they only went into one long path. Did they get a crossi...

    '...', as he was thinking about this, there was indeed a crossing, three different paths, they he looked at the right path, peeking as he was stick to the well... thirty feet further, there was another crossing, at the left, it was the same, it was also the same in front of them.

    A maze, crossings toward all directions every thirty feet ? That is awful.
    In a place full of undead at every corner ? That is hellish.
    How big was the place ? Was there any underground floors ? That is exhausting.

    There was too much they did not know. Perhaps, the exit was ten kilometers further. How many feet is that ? How many crossings ? How many undeads ?

    Seeing the crossings with Cinis, Raz frowns and thinks for a few minutes. Thoughts such as, "Where do each of these crossings go? Do we keep going straight? Do we go right or left?" appear.

    Feeling like going straight did them well last time, he points straight forward to see if they both want to go that way.

    They needed more ways to communicate, Cinis wanted to say that they should find a wall, as in, a place where there is no crossings. But how ? How for both questions.

    How to say it, and how find a place with no crossings, following the wall ? Dangerous to do. Going straight ? It would mean more crossings, more paths, more ways for enemies to attack them... no, it should be fine.
    Skeletons and zombies should be more or less easy to hear. Going straight, and ignoring all the crossings might be the simplest solution.

    If he could, he would say, he raised his thumb and pointed forward. And if there are enemies forward, turn back, take a crossing and then continue forward, as long as they do not go back to the entry, every path can be taken.

    Raz nods towards Cinis and waits for him as he goes to check straight forward.

    Going forward, there was nothing much, thiry feet later, they met another crossing, however, Cinis still went forward, raising his thumb.

    After a crossing, he heard a groaning, no, he heard groanings, it was coming from the right, they could just continue forward, as long as they don't come from behind or in front of them, there was no issue to the half-elf. No issues. They did not need to change directions.

    Waiting for Cinis, Raz hears some groaning behind him. Checking behind him, he sees a bunch of zombies walking through a corridor, as if it was an entire horde. Raz quickly but stealthily goes to Cinis and sweats a little.

    Seeing his confusion at why he came up, he tried using his hands to indicate that a lot of zombies were coming.

    Having the urge to curse, he felt like he should not even have thought about zombies coming from behind, it happened! Perhaps if he did not think about it... that is a stupid thought. What is next? Zombies falling from the ceiling.
    Despite everything, Cinis continued to walk forward, even if there was a horde behind... they were slow. Or so he thought, until he heard the footsteps behind him getting quicker, more agitated.

    '...', a sigh escaped his mouth, it was unavoidable, isn't it ? They were now here, they were making a huge noise, talking should not doom them... better be safe than sorry. He straightened his hand, all of his fingers were stretched and sticked to each other, and he descended and ascended his palm three times forward.

    'Hurry, hurry.', he began to walk rather quickly, they were still slower, they will not get quicker yet, it should be fine, it should be fine, they can not run, he just has to walk more quickly than them. If he ran, he would hurt his already injured leg. It would be terrible.

    Nodding towards Cinis, Raz picks up the pace. Hearing the footsteps get a bit lighter behind them after a few minutes, they end up at another crossroads. Looking to the right pathway, he sees some skeletons with robes passing by with some skeletons around them.

    Nervously, Raz looks left and sees some more zombies on the left pathway. Seeing that there is only the path forward, he signals Cinis to look left and right as he did.

    '...', looking right and left once again, Cinis made the same movement as earlier, you can not go behind, you can not go right, you can not go left, then just go forward. That's the only way left, afterwards, the exit should not be forward, making a maze for the exit to be straight ahead, it would be quite dumb.

    Obviously, they will have turn either right or left, hopefully, perhaps, at the next crossing... there would be no enemies at the left, no opponents at the right.

    Dozens of seconds later, they met a crossing once again, nevertheless, there were only two ways, right or left. At the right, there was two skeletons in robes, accompanied with some shades, some forms behind them, at the left, there was simply... another good ol' horde.

    But. There was another way... a hole, yes, a hole near the wall leading below, toward a deeper floor. Or perhaps it was remains of a trap, leading to spikes to kill them. In both cases, it was worse than right and left.
    Quickly, he looked at rather and felt like staying quiet was useless, they were already surrounded anyway. Could it be worse?
    Yes, it could. But whatever.

    "Left or right."
    It could be easily seen on Cinis' face that he was irritated by this situation.
    Seeing the same situation, Raz decided to point to the left. If the zombies intelligence was low enough, they could kill some and pass right through.

    However, they'd only have one shot if this happened. So, he made sure he was prepared in a fighting stance.

    Cinis nodded, the situation at the right was too vague, it seemed that there were more than those skeletons in robes, zombies... he took his shield and held his Khopesh tighter than usual.

    How many were they? More than a dozen. Were they ready? It seemed like they will be. Let's go.
    Cinis was ready and prepared to slash at them, to spread the rotten blood on the floor.

    Seeing they were both ready, Raz ran forward and enhanced his weapon with his Ki. He slashed at some of the zombies in the center and aimed at their heads. Their heads got cleanly lopped off and the corpses fell to the ground.

    Seeing there's still more in the center, Raz makes sure to leave room for Cinis to attack so they don't get surrounded.

    Taking a step forward toward the right, Cinis first bashed a zombie with his shield fixed on his left arm, bones cracking sounds could be heard, at the same moment, his right hand, gripping forward the enemy, the blade descended and deeply cut the head in two.
    Instead of stepping back to reduce their numbers with some slashes, the demi elf held the zombie's throat with his left hand and charged.

    Pushing away the surrounding opponents with his brutality, he then threw the corpses at the others monsters, a few of them fell on the ground, creating them a opening, albeit a risky one as they were alive and needed to stomp on them to pass, they might get bitten, scratched or anything along those lines.

    Seeing the roadway, Raz rushed through, focusing Ki into his legs to crush anything through the pathway they both got. Quickly, his legs crush some of the zombie's skulls or hands as he passes through.

    Noticing he's out, he waits for Cinis to get through.

    Getting out of the swarm, after avoiding every possible injuries they could do to him, he was exhausted, they still needed to flee, after all, they were still tracking them.

    "Let's continue!", he continued to run away from the opponents, this time, it seemed that there were no crossings forward, or at least, they couldn't go left as they would go back to the entrance. They needed either to go forward or to go right.

    Hearing the trainings becoming weaker and weaker, he felt relived. They went through this and survived... That was one adventure to tell.

    Seeing their pathways, Raz points to the right, given it'd get them back on track to get outside. He sheathes his blade and goes back on the wall to sneak again.

    Looking to the right, after he enters a little, he sees nothing but empty space. Luckily, it seems they have some good fortune after their previous encounter.

    "Ah... A place to rest. Finally. That was terrible. Well... I suppose there is as much as I expected."
    Feeling exhausted, he wanted to find a way to close this space from the corridor, perhaps there was something akin a door. Unexpectedly, there was something similar a rock of around eight feet tall and nine feet of length.

    "Help me push that to block the passage."
    Immediately, Cinis was ready to push it, his right leg was itching, probably because he exerted too much pressure on it.

    "Don't worry, I can help do most of the pushing," guiding his Ki, he tries enhancing his arms a bit to push the big rock. Luckily, it starts moving and Raz continues pushing with Cinis helping. After a while, they manage to cover the entrance.

    Seeing it's done, he sits down and looks at Cinis, "Seems like that was a close call. Looks like we should take some rest. I don't know how long we've been walking, but it feels like half a day passed."

    "Yeah... Let me a few minutes."
    After this, Cinis closed his eyes and held his hands to each other, muttering words, most being inaudible.

    "...hope shall prevail...", that was the only thing that could be heard, it seemed to be a prayer. Followed by a deep breath, Cinis brushed his own hair backwards and looked at the ceiling.

    "We need to rest... Really. We are lucky not to have died or being injured."
    Stretching his right leg, he felt rather in pain, it seems that the harms were reopened.

    "Aaaah... We have been here for a while indeed, the previous cave we explored was much bigger but way less exhaustive. This one can easily make someone paranoid."

    "We should eat first and then sleep. We'll take turns being awake, in case anything bad happens," Saying this, Raz brings out his rations and starts eating, "Better eat while we still can, we need to keep our strength up."

    "Maybe. I will keep watch first. I will wake you up once I want to get some rest. Alright?"
    Cinis sighed and cracked his neck as he simply began to inspect his seax, as rusty as always. It was like an obsession, he was always checking this seax.
    "Okay then, good luck." Saying this, Raz decides to cultivate before going to sleep, regaining his Ki after a while. Finished, he rests on the floor and goes to sleep.

    Thinking deeply, Cinis began to play with his weapon, it was a real mess according to him. Remembering clearly what path they took, as if those moments happened one second earlier, he observed what happened and wanted to see if they missed anything. His memory may be infallible, his time reaction was still rather slow.

    For example... There were some sort of unnatural shades behind the skeleton in robes, he did not think much of these, but what were these? He did not know a bit about it.

    "Such a mess.", he was not in the mood to eat, nor did he even have food anyway. He only had some water he got from the river. Nothing much in other words.
    Hours later, his mind was set, he knew what he had to do. Now, that he decided, he might as well go to sleep before becoming indecisive once again.

    "Hey Raz. That's time to switch.", Cinis tapped his shoulder with his finger twice and then waited that he wakes up. Not insisting much.

    Feeling a tapping on his shoulder, Raz wakes up and says, "Time to switch, huh? Okay, you go and rest then," getting up, he sees that Cinis hasn't had anything due to not seeing any rations. Getting out one of his rations, he ands it over to Cinis.

    "Here, this is a spare ration. I usually keep extra, we need our strength to get out of here, alive."

    "Thank."
    Cinis, after a sigh, took the ration and hesitated a few seconds before eating it rather quickly, it tasted horrible. Honestly, he did not want to take it, a few days without eating should be fine. Oh well.

    "I owe you that.", might as well take it, he should have prepared himself a bit better, afterwards, he sat, close his eyes and fell asleep.

    Seeing he has nothing to do but wait, Raz cultivates while on watch. After a few hours, he stops and feels like he progressed a little in his cultivation.

    After waiting a while longer, Raz sees Cinis wake up.

    "Morning, I guess we should eat and then start moving this rock. After all, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner we will get out alive."

    "Morning I suppose. How was this night to you? Not too uncomfortable?"
    After all, in a place where no sun light, how could they know how what time it was.

    "Mmm, after getting out, we should go right, straight in front of us is probably the entrance, and the left is where we come from, we could get back on our tracks and change directions as well."
    Feeling a bit energetic due to his sleep, Cinis stretched his arms, a slight smile appeared on his face. Resting in this kind of isolated place always felt nice.

    "Well, let's start moving this rock to get out of here."

    Getting up, he infuses his arms with Ki and calls over Cinis for help. Seeing he's about to push, Raz pushes with Cinis's help. It slowly moves as they uncover the entrance.

    After a while, the entrance is unveiled and Raz retracts his Ki. Looking to Cinis, he says, "Well, your decision this time."

    "Let's just go right, hopefully, they forgot us. So I suppose we should stay quiet once again as well."
    Advancing right and sticking to one of the wall, he decided to advance carefully, not as much as he initially did, he was perhaps a bit quicker, as they already escaped death and for the hang of what's going on here.

    'Mmmm... It looks like there would be some more crossings...', Cinis decided not to bother with crossings and simply not change direction.

    After a hour or two of avoiding monsters and trying to advance without changing direction or if they needed to change, they would still get back on their previous path to continue on their way.
    Finally, there was a last crossing, one leading to the right, another one in front of us.

    He did not really want to choose, so he took out a coin, and pointed at each face of it, tail and head, and then respectively pointed to the right and straight paths.
    Then he threw it.
    Looking at Cinis's coin being flipped, Raz catches it and puts it on his palm. Seeing what it was, he shows the side to Cinis, heads. Giving it back to Cinis, he gets on the wall and starts going straight forward.

    Hours pass by, with some of the occasional zombies and skeletons appearing through certain corridors, leading them to keep on going straight. This leaves them eventually finding a crossroads with only a left and right pathway.

    Seeing this, Raz thinks, "Huh, seems like we're stuck at a crossroads again. Since we were initially going towards the exit, the right should be the correct way, right?"

    Thinking this, Raz looks to the left and right. On his left, however, appear to be some zombies and skeletons traversing the path. Looking to the right, he sees the path is clear and devoid of any undead.

    Signaling to go to the right, Raz puts his thumb up and starts going right, sticking to the wall.

    Going right along with Raz, Cinis wished he could sigh. No undeads, it might be a good news.
    Or a trap.
    Honestly. He preferred the former.

    Moments later, it felt as if the obscurity was slowly disappearing, as if the atmosphere was slowly brightening, both of them could not see the light, but it was there. It was near. The exit? A fire?
    Hopefully, it was close.

    But... They arrived at an empty space. Nothing here. Just another empty room. A brighter one.

    "An exit is here. I bet there is one."

    "Indeed, this room is quite suspicious. I guess we'll just try and find any sort of switch in the walls potentially."

    Going around the front wall, Raz looks around for any type of switch or mechanism to see if there are any secrets to the room. After wandering around a while, he stops in the center and is about to turn back when he steps on the ground and the floor sinks a little. Seeing the front wall again, he sees it start sliding open.

    Looking at this while smiling, he says to Cinis, "It seems like I accidentally found it. I guess we go forward this time."

    Seeing this, Cinis had a deadpan look... That is a joke, isn't it? The half-elf sighed and just wanted to facepalm at Raz's luck.

    "That is a bit too much of a coincidence...", he signed again and went to check the passage that just opened, the sun light could be seen. He entered and looked at the left, it was another entrance to the cave of dead and the right... The exit, the sun light, the South of Ternus.

    "We got out, finally."

    "Indeed. I've got to say, my luck truly helps at times like this!" Raz laughs a bit to himself and starts going outside with Cinis to the South of Ternus.

    Outside of the cave, Raz looks at the surroundings and breathes in and out.

    "Fresh air! I swear that cave was nerve-wracking! I am so happy we're out. Hopefully, we never have to deal with the undead in there at any point!"

    Not noticing he jinxed them, Raz calms down from their dangerous trip.

    "Hey, you know that after the quest, we basically have to come back, then, to cross this cave again?"
    Cinis chuckled and replied to Raz on a sarcastic tone, looking at the surroundings, the half-elf noticed that there were soldiers patrolling around the cave of the dead.

    It should be quite a guarded zone after all, after, it seemed that there was not only one entrance, that is nothing surprising. Well, it was afternoon, the sun was up in the sky, they had no way to escape the guards.
    Why escaping the guards? They would ask questions about how they crossed the cave and that will be quite bothersome...

    "Alright, now, we should go to Hero's Port... mmmm, it is quite far... have any ideas on how to get there?"

    "Well, we could always go on the road for a while and ask a person for a free ride to be bodyguards on their way?" Raz says this offhandedly due to not having any other plans in mind.

    "Of course, we could always go to the guards, but going through the cave and surviving in one piece would be sort of... skeptical to say the least."

    "...Mmmmm... I am hesitating, I thought of something, as we accepted a request for Agral and they should basically waiting for us to come... perhaps the guards know something about it? However, we would have to prove our identity and something along those lines..."
    After rubbing his chin, Cinis said this and looked at the guards that slowly began to notice the both of them, they first seemed surprised to see people so near the cave of the dead without them noticing.

    "The first question would be... do they know anything about Agral? No... common soldiers wouldn't..."

    "Well, they've noticed us already. If we turn and run, we'll be branded as suspicious and most likely chased after. I think we should talk to them."

    Saying this, Raz waits for input from Cinis.

    "Alright... let's just talk to th-"
    As he was going to reply Raz, he heard someone shouting to them, it was a guard, he raised his hand upwards, they seemed ready to draw weapon, quite offensive, aren't they? Isn't that a bit quick?

    "HALT! Who are you!"
    Understanding that they must stay far due to this reaction, Cinis sighed and rubbed his forehead as he wondered about how to settle this situation... first, the presentations.

    "My name is Cinis, an E-Rank Adventurer. And here is my partner, Raz, as well an adventurer of the same rank, we are both coming from Nagrand, more precisely, the Adventurers Guild due to a request from Agral, thus we wish get to Hero's Port, as we are low on money, we decided to cross the Cave of the Dead."
    Saying the basic informations in one breath, the guards who heard him were stunned, because they had troubles believing that two adventurers basically crossed the cave of the dead... famed for their danger.

    However, one of them on the side seemed to be feeling rather perplexed, as he simply muttered on his own.
    "...there were indeed some merfolks in Hero's Port..."

    This small comment made them more inclined to believe the adventurers, but, they were still doubtful, crossing the cave of the dead? It was the issue to them, it seemed that until one of their superior comes, the situation won't evolve.

    "What my companion said was true, we managed to carefully sneak our way out. Luckily, we barely got out without a scratch! I mean, you can look at the room from where we left, you know," saying this, Raz points towards the entrance to the cave, "I wouldn't want to go back in there though for now. There was a bunch of undead."

    "Even so, we should get our superior. Wait here while my companion gets him."

    Seeing him wave off his companion go to get their superior, Raz talks to Cinis, "It seems like this will be our first roadblock. So, ever heard of 20 questions?"

    "Twenty questions... back in the past, in the Northern Holy Empire of Men, it was the hundred questions, why? Because it sounds neater, they have this kind of eccentric up there in the north."
    Immediately replying, Cinis sighed. Those were quite the bad memories, he hated replying questions, it was a particular hate, it felt like he had to justify himself for everything he does.

    Some dozens of minutes later, a middle-aged man in a rather modest yet official armor came and checked both of the adventurers, finding their equipments quite shabby.
    It fits to adventurers, he thought.
    Then, they seemed to be quite unfamiliar with the surroundings, fitting to adventurers as well, they did not seem to have a good common sense, fitting to adventurers, and so on, he kept finding characteristics that fitted adventurers to him, albeit all of these were biased.

    "Alright, you do seem like adventurers, as for Agral... I did hear about it, I guess you can come with us..."
    Of course, it was not out of courtesy, it was to keep an eye on them, true, adventurers are crazy people, who knows what they might do? Crossing the cave of the dead... well, they are adventurers.

    "Ha.", Cinis snorted when he heard the guard's superior talking, he did not ask any questions, he supposed it would happen during the trip.

    "Yes, sir." saying this, Raz starts following the guards superior. Shortly after a while, they see a carriage with some horse's on it. Confused, he looks at him.

    The guards superior looks at them and says, "A carriage came here from Hero's Port for some of our weekly supplies. Luckily, they've just arrived, so you can hitch a ride back if it's okay with the owner."

    Hearing this, Raz looks towards Cinis, "It seems like our luck is finally changing. With this transportation, we should have smooth sailings!"

    Before they could say anything, the guard's superior got on the carriage and made a sign to the adventurers.

    "Come in this carriage, we will go to Hero's Port while I question you. During the whole trip."
    There is basically almost two hundreds of kilometers between the Cave of the Dead and Hero's Port, that is a very very long time... slowly, a carriage should roll at around ten kilometers per hour, thus, twenty hours without rest if the land is completely flat, which is very unlikely, thus, instead of twenty days, it should be something like two days of trip. Very very long... two days of questionning... if we forget about the resting part of course, so it is more likely to be three days.

    "Well, it should be fine, isn't it?", Cinis said to Raz with a small smile, they could not miss this opportunity, but neither could they avoid being questionned, isn't it ?

    "It's just two to three days... right?" saying this as if it's nothing, Raz gets on the carriage with Cinis on the carriage. Spotting a suitable spot to sit on, he sits down.

    Seeing that both of them get on, the guard's superior began his questioning. Questions about how they got through the cave, how they survived with their equipment, etc.

    After a long day of questioning, Raz feels exhausted due to the constant questioning and thinks, "Why don't you just shut the hell up!?"

    "So, how did you cross the cave again? Do you perhaps have a map?", Cinis didn't reply and shook his head at both questions, as if he did not know anything about it, concretely, he simply stayed silent at every question, either he shook his head or nodded.
    In both cases, it irked the guards superior, he could not say that Cinis wasn't cooperating, he was just reply questions by no, yes or a shrug.

    Seeing that guard getting irritated by him, instead, he seemed to be pestering Raz way more than him.
    'How lucky of me.', Cinis thought as he chuckled. After all, who liked to question a silent person who did not seem to mind at all the questionning.

    Seeing night approaching, Raz sees a chance and says, "While I would love to answer your questions, it appears it's almost time for bed. We should camp, eat, and then sleep."

    Seeing the night, the guard's superior frowns but says, "We should camp for the night and let our horses rest. We can continue tomorrow."

    Getting off the carriage, a campfire was made shortly after and some food was brought out of the carriage. Apparently they were used to this and could quickly set up camp easily.

    After having dinner, Cinis smirked and said to Raz as he threw a glance at the guards superior.

    "Go to sleep first, I will have a little talk to the guard meanwhile. This should be fine, right ?"
    The mentioned person frowned and stared silently at the adventurer who seemed to be rather suspicious all of sudden. At first, he thought that he was just an irritable scoundrel, but it seems like there was a bit more to it.

    Hearing this, Raz nods and goes to sleep. Since he cultivated most of the trip and didn't give the guard clear answers much, he went straight to sleep after eating.

    Before he goes to sleep, he thinks, "Finally, that superior needs to keep his mouth shut and stop suspecting us so heavily."

    "So dear friend, what do you know about Agral? More precisely Atlatas."
    Cinis said as he sat beside the guard superiors, or perhaps captain? He did not really introduced himself, but it should be captain, isn't it.

    "What do you mean? And first, you reply to my questions."
    Continuing the show further, the half-elf clicked on his tongue as his words escaped more and more from his mouth.

    "No no no, don't play dumb, as well as I won't tell who you are or were. Archives are pretty interesting you see. Just don't mess around, it is rather bothersome to have stalker questioning me you see."
    The liar still seemed to be confused, he was still acting as if he knew nothing, if Cinis didn't have him recorded in his mind, he would completely believe him.
    An exceptional actor.

    "Anyway, runaway comrade, that's just a reminder. I wish you do not annoy me much during the trip. You have your circumstances, I have mine, he probably has his as well."

    Afterwards, Cinis went to sleep, wondering whether this night shall be dangerous or not.
    Waking up, Raz sees Cinis and 100 questions awake. They appear to be having some breakfast before they begin the trip again. Seeing this, Raz grabs some of the food that was made and greets them both.

    "So, second day of the trip, hopefully, it ends soon."

    Staring at Raz, the guard's superior says, "You have different manners and speech compared to others. Who are you really?"

    Hearing this, Raz simply eats some more and doesn't answer. The guard's superior noticing this, gets up and grabs him and lifts him up a bit.

    "Hey, what's the big idea!?"

    "You are suspicious, potentially dangerous. A Ki User, people that usually don't stay alive a long time, came out unscathed from the cave of the dead, possibly from the Eastern continent, possibly a spy. Then."

    The tone of his voice became much more harsher as each word who escaped his mouth seemed to be as heavy as a hammer striking the still hot iron.

    "Where. Do. You. Come. From?
    Who. Are. You?"

    Every time he spouted a word, he seemed to be taking a short breath. He was hesitating whether to tighten his grip or not.

    "I'm just your basic adventurer! I only learned Ki by using books and making my own cultivation techniques!" saying this as a fact, he feels the grip get tighter.

    "Stop trying to delay! Just because you're a Ki user, doesn't mean you can make cultivation techniques like candy!" feeling his grip get tighter, Raz has trouble breathing a bit.

    Looking over at Cinis, he looks as if asking for some help while he's distracted.

    If he had something to drink, Cinis would be sipping it right now while looking at the scene.

    "Are you even trying to strangle him... First, use your two hands."
    Seeing how he handled Raz, Cinis sighed as he began to sarcastically give advices to the captain who wished he could attack the half-elf.

    "Anyway, you should release him. Even if he is clearly lying, he shouldn't be a spy or he wouldn't be so... Well, you know, don't you?"
    Hearing him, the guard's captain released Raz while looking down at him before going back on the carriage.

    "We will be departing.", he said as he made a sign to the two adventurers. To tell them to get back on the carriage so they could get to Hero's Port.

    Being let go, Raz stretches and frowns. Looking towards Cinis, he comes by and whispers to him, "I didn't feel a thing, he must be quite weak. That or I've made some progress in my cultivation, either way... he sure doesn't act like an actual soldier. He acts more like a bandit."

    Thinking for a bit, he says, "I feel like he's not so simple as just a simple superior."

    "Perhaps, but that is his business, his name, his face, his acts, his past, nothing really matters."
    After replying, he then stared at Raz and wanted to smack his head, wanting him to stop boasting for a bit.

    "Didn't feel a thing..? When basically, you had troubles breating... Ha. Oh well, all I know is that he changed countries a few times.", as for how and why he knows, that is something he would not explain.

    "Anyway, let's not waste time and get back on the carriage, let's hurry a bit. We have a quest to accomplish after all."
    Getting back on the carriage. Cinis waited for Raz to come up as he simply felt like sleeping.

    "That wasn't the reason I was having trouble breathing, he had some sort of scent on his hands. It felt like I was suffocating just from smelling it," saying this crucial detail, he decides to go back on the carriage.

    After sitting down, he sees the guard's superior go up to the coach and leaves the two of them in the back for once.

    "The scent eh. I see.", basically, he was weak but he had literally tricks in his sleeves. His identity was particularly hazy. Wouldn't even the higher ups be suspicious about him? Or did they already know everything?
    Those were questions that shouldn't concern them, but curiosity is rather unstoppable.

    The second day passed without the harasser saying any word to them, unlike the previous day in which he was basically pestering and bothering him for the whole day, he was silent and did not move, he stayed beside the coach.

    While as for Cinis, he slept the whole day, he didn't have much to do and well, at least, he won't need to rest, there should be half a day before they arrive.

    While Cinis was sleeping the whole day, Raz was cultivating as the trip went by. Seeing that it's night again, the carriage stopped. Feeling the carriage stop, he opens his eyes and sighs.

    "Great, another encounter with that person," saying this under his breath, he gets out of the carriage and gets ready to eat.

    Once again. The three of them were around the campfire, except Cinis who seemed to be in a good mood, it seems that both the guard captain and Raz were exasperated by being in presence of each other.
    How ironical, one because he can't interrogate anymore, while the other because he was interrogated, or so the half-elf thought as he ate rather happily, royally ignoring his surroundings as the food was all that mattered in his eyes.

    Without waiting, Cinis directly went back to sleep. The guard captain sighed and cursed as he saw him going to rest so quickly.

    "Hypocritical scoundrel.", afterward, he turned his head to Raz and asked before starting to eat.
    "Where do you come from?", is it gonna start again...

    "As I told you before on the carriage, from Nagrand. Now, it's very late again, and we still have to be wide awake, I'll be going to sleep now."

    Getting up, the guard captain looks at him getting up and gets up as well. He says, "You're hiding something! I'm not sure what, but I'll find out at the end of this trip! There's no way you two are regular adventurers."

    Hearing his last words, he shrugs and goes to a tree and leans against it to sleep. The guard captain seeing this grits his teeth in anger and makes sure he has his eyes on the both of them for a while before finally going to sleep.

    The morning quickly came as the guard captain decided to get to Hero's Port as soon as possible. As for why? He needed time to think about the two adventurers, one of them was clearer than the other, since he seemed to know a bit about him while the other is strange in all possible senses, the oddness is rather minimal, nevertheless the issue was that everything about him was odd.

    "I shall see you later, once you come back from Agral that is.", he said quickly then got beside the coach. This time again, he will not be with the adventurers on the back. Quite good for them, it will be a peaceful end without interactions with the guard.

    After, they would need to find the merfolks at the port.

    "Well, I guess we should first find the merfolk. Let's search around for a while and see where they are."

    Getting off the carriage, Raz and Cinis are surrounded by plenty of merchants. Some of them selling seafood, accessories, weapons of some sort, etc. Seeing that there are mainly merchants around, he looks further away near the inner parts.

    Luckily, Raz spots some merfolk, pointing towards them, he tells Cinis, "I think those are the people waiting for us, let's go."

    "That is rather lucky of us, I suppose, we can directly introduce ourselves to them."
    Taking the first step toward the merfolks, Cinis immediately showed his wooden badge while taking out the quest sheet he had about how Atlatas is currently compromised by a sudden disaster that can not be stopped for now, that is.

    "My name is Cinis, I am an E-Rank Adventurer, I suppose you are here about Atlatas? If yes, then we are the adventurers charged with this quest to try to help you find clues about this disease. First, I have a question, can we assume that this touch only merfolk or not?"
    It was rather an important question as if they go but then get sick, they will basically get no information as they won't be able to investigate.

    "Indeed, it only affects the merfolk. Also, your name is?" looking to the side, Raz is asked what his name is.

    Smiling, he introduces himself, "My name is Raz, I am also an E-Rank Adventurer. I hope we can meet your expectations on this matter."

    Hearing their names, he replies, "Since you both are here, I suggest we go now, no time to waste."

    "Alright, how should we go there?"
    Cinis asked as they did not say how the trip would be, how to get to Atlatas, but for now, it seemed to be only a detail, like, they did not mention it.

    "We will go underwater once we are above Atlatas, as well we will reply to your questions while explaining what we know about the disease, how it appeared precisely and so on. For now, let's just take the boat."
    The merlfolk more or less precised as he pointed on a small boat, supposed to move fast he supposed? After all, Agral should have the best maritime force in the Central Continent.

    Seeing the boat, Raz goes towards the boat and finds a place to sit down on. Getting a bit comfortable, he sees the rest of the merfolk get on and Cinis as well.

    "I'm quite excited, I'm visiting so many new places at once!"

    "Well, that's true, shame we have to more or less concentrate on the quest, otherwise it would have been interesting to visit them instead of just passing through them without watching."
    Honestly, Cinis is a bit disappointed that they have to hurry to take the quest, he would have particularly liked if he could take his time and visit all these places, of course, he cannot.

    Getting on the boat, the first thing Cinis did was to sit near the edge of the boat, windy and fresh, the perfect location. For some reasons, he loved the wind, specially when it was violent, not to the point of being carried away, nevertheless he loved the feeling of being slightly pushed by the wind, it felt refreshing.

    "I guess, it should not take that much time to arrive... for now, we should try to gather information about the disease."

    "Agreed," seeing the boat started moving, Raz talks to one of the merfolk next to him, "So, what is the nature of the disease?"

    Looking at him, the merfolk replies, "It makes merfolk go mad. This is a very troublesome disease, and we think it's some sort of secretion from the coral. So, we'll be sending you down there to see if you can find anything remotely strange down there."

    Nodding, he then says, "So, how are we going to be breathing down there? Are you going to cast spells on us and swim with us?"

    "Yes, of course we will do so, how would you go underwater otherwise?"
    In a matter of facts, the merfolk was right, if he didn't help, they would never be able to accomplish their quest.

    Then, Cinis began questioning him as well.
    "The people that went mad, once they are taken away from the corals, do their sanity come back?", that was as well an important question, if they never go sane again, that is really dangerous and might dissuade him from continuing the quest.

    "Slowly but surely, our people estimated to go back to normal, those people would need six months, without any medication."
    Taking the situation seriously, the merfolk not to spare any details. It seemed like he was personally concerned by what was happening in Atlatas.

    "I see, do you know how they got sick? As in, is that because they breathed or touched the weird substance? Is the amount taken change the degree of the disease?"
    "They touched the substance and it only took a small amount to affect them. Only a drop was needed to make them go mad. So, while we're helping you, we can't go by that substance at all."

    Hearing this, Raz wryly smiles, "So, that dangerous, huh. Also, it'll take six months without medication, that's quite the potent substance! Hopefully, we can find out whatever is causing this by the time we're done with the quest."

    Hearing this, the merfolk nods and they keep on going on their course.

    After a few hours go by, the merfolk says, "We're here."

    Arriving, a few merfolks, four of them, came out of the water and without waiting after a sign from the one on the boat, they began chanting magical spells that could not be understood as it was in a foreign language that was unknown to the two adventurers.

    "Jump in the water, between the four of them, you might get wet but don't worry, as long as you are under our spells, you will not feel the coldness nor would you feel the lack of air, you will be able to breath just finely.", the merfolk said as he waved at them, he was planning to stay on the boat, waiting for the results of their investigation.

    Without waiting or replying, Cinis jumped out of the boat, he slightly wondered whether staying long lenghts of time in water would hurt his already crippled legs, however, he did not bother, they needed to accomplish their quests, whether they liked it or not. It was the priority.

    Hearing this, Raz jumped between them and makes a huge splash. Getting up, he's at the surface and sees them start finishing their chants.

    After finishing their chants, a pale blue glow appears on their bodies as the spell is completed. Feeling he's not cold in the water anymore, Raz is relieved.

    "You may start descending now, good luck. The spell shall last for quite a while, so don't worry about time a lot." the merfolk says as he then points downwards to begin our descent. Nodding, Raz begins diving to go to his objective.

    "Haa-Haa. Surprisingly, we can talk, I thought we would be able to breath but not to talk.", slightly surprised by what he discovered, Cinis decided to dive deeper into the water, he wondered how many kilometers they would have to swim toward the bottom of the sea before reaching Atlatas, perhaps, they should have ate something before going underwater.

    "Mmmm. Oh well, we shall see.", for this, the half-elf decided to swim quicker and quicker, uncaring for his stamina, at the very least, it would train him a bit, as in, how to be quicker and more reactive in water, how to manage your movements and so on, since who knows what might happen, later, in some days, in some weeks, in some months, he might need to go underwater.

    Later on, they arrived at Atlantas, an huge coral city, it was undescribable, how can they build a city like this? It was... incredible, he could even say inhumane as merfolks aren't humans...
    "Ha, well, that's normal I guess as people living in different places have different talents.", as well as people of different social classes and races.

    Looking at the surroundings, only one word could be in Raz's mind, "Amazing."

    Seeing all of this, he tries to memorize the sight so he can have it in his memory forever. Who knows when he might be able to go back to a city such as this in the future? After having a good enough look and remembering the task at hand, he looks towards the merfolk.

    "A beautiful city you have here, however, we must take care of whatever problem is ailing your people first. Can you please guide us?"

    Hearing this, the merfolk nod and guide Raz and Cinis further out. Around 30 minutes pass and they finally see the coral reef. However, the sight of what is supposed to be beautiful could only be described as horrific. They were covered in a type of blackish substance that was slowly going into the ocean. It appears it was spreading slowly over time.

    After guiding them, the merfolk quickly left as what he was seeing was disgusting him, since, which being would like to be near something that might make them go crazy? Nobody of course, unless they are suicidal that is.

    "Mmm, let's check it from nearer... but come on, black? Couldn't it be more original, like... orange, it could be orange. But obviously, it is black, such an unnatural color, it must be the work of someone or one nasty accident!", Cinis couldn't help but sarcastically think aloud as he was clearly mocking what was this.
    Getting closer and closer to the coral, he didn't hesitate a second to touch the black substance with his right hand, it was repulsingly sticky, disliking this feeling, he wiped it off his right palm and rubbed his chin. Feeling that nothing happened to him, his initial guess was right.

    "It doesn't affect any other races than merfolk or fishes I suppose.", thing is that, what is exactly going on with the people affected with this disease? They go mad and attack people, but how do they attack people? Like beasts or educated people? As in, do they retain the techniques they learnt. If only he thought about it early.
    Quickly, he shared his thoughts to Raz, thinking that, as they were unaffected by it, it should be rather hard for them to find clues about the origin of the disease, unless one of them was a mage, which was not the case.

    "Haa, if only I learnt magic, I could at least determine if the disease is magical or not, but in my opinion, it is far from being something caused by a mutation, it is not natural. Why? Because of this color.", unless the substance was made with ink or something along those lines.

    "Sadly, I don't know magic and only Ki. Sadly, however, this substance is definitely not natural and we don't really have much to go on. Maybe we should search around a little and see if there's anything around that could potentially be the cause?"

    Shortly afterward, however, the coral reef moved a little. This made Raz's eyes go wide. What could possibly move the entire coral reef that likely weighed a massive amount!?

    "Cinis, something doesn't feel right about this..."

    "Mmm... it feels like an earthquake... I think, it's a bit strange underwater... it feels like everything around us is moving. That's quite... interesting.", observing something significantly different from Raz, Cinis decided to directly ask a merfolk about what were the physical conditions of the infected people.

    "Excuse me, can you reply to some of my questions about people who were infected?", talking to the merfolk who originally brought them here, he nodded despite being quite uneasy with this subject.

    "Alright, I will ask all of my questions, first, how do infected people react? For example, when they attacked their kin, were they like beast or were they still using their weapons properly. Just reply shortly, you don't need to give details."
    Hearing this, the merfolk's face seemed to be pained as he replied after a sigh.

    "Like beasts..."
    "Next question, physically, how were they? Did they seem weaker or stronger for example? Did they seem more, less agile and so on?"
    Not waiting the merfolk to take his breath, could he say this idiom underwater, specially about merfolks? It was irrelevant, he quickly dismissed this thought out of his mind.

    "Stronger... way stronger... even the ones known for being on the backlines were stronger than regular soldiers, they seemed to be less... flabby..?"
    He did not need to add details to his words, but less flabby, what did he mean by this? Staring at the merfolk, he waited for him to explain what he meant.
    "I mean, like, their scales seemed more like yours, less slippy and so on."
    He pointed at Cinis and Raz, less slippy? So, their 'scales' became more like skin? Like humans and elves, like humanoids on the land...

    "Mmm, Raz, do you have anything to ask to him? As for me, I have something in mind but I am unsure and need more informations, however, I can't get any questions in mind."

    "I don't have anything to ask them, I think I have my own theories as well. The theory is also one of the worst case scenario's though," looking towards one of the merfolk, Raz says, "Has there been anyone coming to this area lately? Any sort of person with power?"

    Trying to think a little, the merfolk responded immediately, "No, nobody."

    Putting a hand on his chin, Raz thinks to himself, "That's odd. If they usually keep watch of the reef, then why didn't they notice anything? They must be hiding something."

    Going over to Cinis, he whispers, "They must be hiding something, I think they already know the cause and are keeping quiet. They must've tried something to get people better at being on land, but it went haywire."

    "Mindless beasts stronger than usual. Seems like the regular experiment who went haywire. They may not know at all, after all, isn't this kind of experiments illegal? And since Agral is a democracy, they probably won't ever authorize something like this, it might be an open secret but who cares, we can just go up and say that we think that it's an experiment that turned off bad."
    Shrugging, Cinis did not care a bit about whether it was a conspiracy or not, in the end, as long as they get their rewards, everything's fine.

    "Anyway, what do you think about it? I am thinking of going up, and report what we think, excluding everything that might include a conspirancy, as long as we have the rewards, I likely don't care about what they are planning."

    "Same, I feel like that's our best option. From what we saw, it affects the coral reef as far as we saw, and we don't have any way to fix it currently. It's out of our hands, for now, we should go back up now."

    Saying this to Cinis, he looks towards the merfolk and talks about going up to report what we saw. Nodding, they start bringing them up. After going up to the surface, they see the same boat with the same merfolk onboard.

    "So, what do you think of what you saw down there? Is there any way to fix it at all?" asking curiously, the merfolk waits for an answer.

    "Well, we only have clues, so as far we know, it affects only merfolks, mentally, sorry if it sounds rude, but they become like bloodthirstly beasts, physically they become stronger than the average... first, its aim is the merfolk.
    Second, it is unnatural, in my opinion, because simply of the color, a black substance, unless it was made with ink, I doubt the coral mutated through natural processes.
    Third, we think that it was something experimental, in others words, someone wanted to improve your physical condition for some x reasons, but it was a half-failure, it succeed but with a big fall, the beast-like mentality."
    Hearing what he said, the merfolk sighed before rubbing his head, it seemed it was something he didn't think of as he had troubles replying to what Cinis said with a straight face, his blue eyes were troubles, his breath was unsteady...

    "...it can be that, who knows, but at least, it gives a new clue about where to investigate, for now, we only investigated the coral... not the people themselves... perhaps, we should have done that earlier.", the merfolk sighed and sat on the ground as he did not know what to say next. His words seemed to be stuck in his throat, clearly, he did not know what was going on.

    "That is our report from our findings. Sadly, we can't do anything more due to not being able to find out the source, sadly. All we got is that information."

    Hearing this from Raz, the merfolk sighs and looks towards them, "Thank you for the information, we at least now know what to do first at least. For now, you've done your job. We'll send you back and you can make your way back to the guild. You'll get your reward when you get back."

    Getting on the boat, Raz and Cinis see the merfolk sigh once more and barely hear him murmur, "Was it them?" before remaining quiet. He then started up the boat and starts going back to Hero's Port.

    Getting back to Hero's Port while royally ignoring the merfolk uttering all sort of words, as well as getting a meal on the boat, provided by them, Cinis only and once again slept. Always sleeping when he can, it could be seen as troublesome.
    Later on, once they arrived, he woke up and left the boat, while waving at the merfolk, he did not want to talk, waving was enough, they should have accomplished their quests by now.

    When they got down to feet, on the land, they saw someone they didn't miss at all, a certain guard captain was there, with this same old irritating smile, he was already there this bastard, and he will say something they can not refuse.

    "Want to get a ride to the Cave of the Dead? We could talk as well.", Cinis shrugged and simply shook his hand with a nasty smile, obviously, both of them already hated each other.

    Seeing the irritating person, Raz just got in the carriage and started cultivating almost immediately. Hearing the guard captain start wanting to talk to him irritated him to no end.

    "Please let this ride be the last we ever see of him," is what Raz thought as Cinis also got on the carriage. Seeing him sit down across from him, the guard captain also went by them, sitting right by Cinis.

    Almost immediately, the guard captain started asking about what they did on the quest.

    "Raz, I will speak with him while you cultivate, let's go on the coach, captain, you are coming right?", Cinis said as he will ease Raz's burdens while he wll have fun injuring the bastard's ego. Seeing from a third party, they would wonder who is really the scoundrel in the story.

    Getting on the coach, Cinis waited for him to talk as he prepared himself to spout sarcasm on sarcasm on sarcasm on sarcasm.
    "So, Agral, or, Atalatas, how was it down there?", he went directly down to the point as Cinis laughed and replied, on a mocking tone.

    "Why would such an insignificant guard from Ternus would like to know the affairs of another country? On top of being a weakling that needs to use tricks and some shady substances to make someone bow down to him, he is like a curious baby that still needs to be instructed?", words immediately flew out of his mouth, like poison, he was trying to be as rude as people, not forgetting that he was speaking rather loudly.

    Hearing what Cinis was saying while cultivating, Raz smirked at how on point Cinis's words were. He says, "Quite the mouth Cinis has, well, as long as I don't have interruptions while cultivating, it should be fine."

    Going back to cultivating, time passes by with the guard captain getting one-sidedly berated by Cinis. After hours of experiencing loss after loss, the guard captain goes silent for the rest of the day. This proves to be very comforting to the two as they don't have to listen to anymore questioning for the day.

    The next day seemed to be the same, Cinis learnt a few things about the guard while he was throwing a fit, he was named Rustis, not a so uncommon name, they only learnt his name now.
    Like the previous day, Rustis got wrecked verbally by Cinis who had no mercy, a slight problem might be that it enraged the guard captain even more, at the end of the day, by another question of Rustis. He only said with a smile.

    "Alright alright... I will be kind, expect the worse from Agral. Stay friendly but expect the worse."
    Feeling a bit of hope to receive more informations, he began to ask for more details, still through shouting and trying to push Cinis down, which was obviously a failure. How can someone so weak-minded can put him down?
    With the day finally ending again, Raz feels as if he no matter how much he cultivates, it's stopped at a certain point. As if he needs something to progress further. Looking to see them both go out again, he prepares for another night.

    Seeing the guard captain frown due to not having enough information as he wanted, he goes to sleep almost immediately.

    "What a weak person... how did he become his rank? Oh well, nothing I need to know, all I want to do is go back to the guild," saying this, he quickly goes to sleep as well for the night.

    After a while, the trip was finally finished, they were back to the Cave of the Dead, need to cross this hell once again, Raz shouldn't remember the path or so Cinis thought, then he said to Rustis, with a smile on his lips.

    "Dear Rustis, it was quite fun bullying you, just so you know, that I rather appreciated your presence, and that I basically never lied, you can take all of my words as truth.", Cinis patted his shoulder, the guard captain wiped off his hand and seemed to feel disgusted as this half-elf touched him.

    "Scram.", and then, without much contact between the two, Cinis left toward the Cave of the Dead, taking the original path they took to cross it the first time.
    "Well, back inside we go. Luckily, I made sure to remember our path out and such. Just in case, in case I'm wrong, you mind helping out?" saying this, Raz quickly enters the cave with Cinis.

    After entering inside, they take the same path as they previously did. However, for some reason, they didn't encounter any undead on their way this time. This made it much easier for them to come out the other side.

    Feeling how easy it was, Raz says, "Odd, we saw undead in there last time, where were they on our way out?"

    "That is strange indeed. I have a few ideas about why, someone happened to passby and attract all of the undeads to him, clearing our path and letting us pass peacefully, that is the first idea.
    The second would that guards launched a mass clearing of the ground floor of the cave as, well, there is an underground but I don't think anyone's feeling to go down there and risk their lives for basically something that is completely unknown, as nobody knows anything about it, which means that every person who came down never came back.
    The third... something in the dark is getting prepared, rather unlikely, and frankly, there is already so many troubles here, so that's very doubtful.

    I think that's the most likely is the first option... anyway, let's get back to the point and go back to the guild else we will end up speaking way too much."

    Realizing that he unexpectedly spoke a lot to reply to Raz, Cinis coughed and initiated the march to come back to Nagrand, to the Adventurers Guild. It was one trip, it lasted more or less a week, didn't it?
    We unexpectedly crossed the cave of the dead, rather messily, there was a crowd that wanted to accompany us, fortunetely, we avoided them and stomped on them.

    Then, we met a rather irritating guard, named Rustis? We only got to know his name before going back to the Cave of the Dead, he is rather a shady individual, he is a guard captain or something along those lines, not really high-ranked, just a bit better than the regular guard... he seemed to have cross several countries, including the HEM.

    Well, we got to the boat to meet with the merfolk, they lead us to Atlatas, we deduced that someone with good will(I think) wanted to improve the physical condition of merfolk but it messed up, it seems that the disease is slowly spreading, it only affects merfolk, they lose their mind, become like beasts but they are physically stronger and should be able to get on land rather easily, they would not have much bothers with fighting on land, supposedly. A conspiracy, perhaps? Who knows.

    And well, after getting back to Hero's Port, we found back Rustis, waiting for us, trying to get informations from us after our quest, I basically verbally wrecked him, as well as humiliated, anyway, in short, I only told him to expect the worse from Agral but to stay friendly, passive-aggresive maybe ?

    Then... the cave of the dead was suspiciously... silent, there was no undead, or we didn't notice them at the very least, we don't know much more except that.
    OOC: Here is our report~
    11.5K words, it was fun~
    Mmmm, perhaps, imo, the end seems a bit rushed after rereading, oh well... and I kept the spoiler for page 1/2/3/etc as it seems easier to read this way~
    (It was easier to compile as well~)

    @AliceShiki
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2019
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  16. Hirame

    Hirame Well-Known Member

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    Maya entered room and waved at cat lady~ Why didn't she speak? Why indeed... Well, she dropped off herbs and submitted report.

    Maya took a quest but she forgot... Maya is hurt and there was something about wolves and zombies around... Oops? Well, Maya could hire someone to protect her~ Yea yea, lets do that!

    **********************************************************

    Theft... That's the only thing how what Cat Lady did to Maya could be called... She clearly knew Maya is poor yet milked her for everything she owned! Now Maya is even in debt... Sooner or later, Maya will take revenge Umm, pardon Maya, she wrote some nonsense into her report~

    Anyway. As Maya tried to drink away her pain, with water of course as there was no way Maya would have money for alcohol... Someone approached her.

    Are you Maya? The adventurer who needs an escort?

    Eh? Maya's escort is here so fast~

    Oh, someone to protect Maya? Yay~

    There was a bit of awkward silence... So Maya continued.


    Hehehe, soo, did you bring everything? Also, Maya didn't hear your name~ How's that?

    My name is Rei.
    I have all I need on me.


    Thats great~
    Lets go!


    No time to waste. After all, mountains are not close and Maya would rather not fail the quest because she takes too long to come back.

    If you are ready then sure, let's go.
    I am just your escort, you make the calls.
    Ah, but that doesn't mean I can't chat a little on the way.


    Oh, true, Maya is boss now... Maya will abuse that~

    Hehehe, Maya is making the calls, huh...
    Maya should hire someone more often, she likes this feeling~


    Stretching a bit, Maya jumped up and as she passed by her guard, touched her shoulder.

    Anyway, let us go then~

    Maya's guard took a second looking at the palm print left after Maya's touch. This part is important, so lets give guard a bit of time~

    Your hands seems to be bleeding.

    Guard said while taking out bandage. Which means? Test failed! Yay~ Maya will totally bully her to fix Maya's mood~

    Take this, we don't want blood to get on the harvest.

    Hehehe, don't worry, Maya will not dirty plants with it, they are too precious after all~

    When time comes, Maya will cover her hands with something. And its fun drawing on things with it~

    Like Maya's guard~

    We should get going tho. As sleeping in mountains gets you a frostbite, you know? It wouldn't do if your hands ended up bitten by frost so much you would look like Maya~

    "No worries about that"
    "I can make us a bonfire"


    Guard said while making tiny flame pop out above her hand.
    ...
    This guard is totally boasting, isn't she...


    Oh? Flame? Maya can do that too~ Except Maya's flames are not warm...

    Still, wont see anything in dark so lets go. Maya hates sleeping in mountains, no matter how warm she is!


    **********************************************************

    The way to mountains was totally unremarkable. Really. Maya tried to find ways to bully guard, but her guard was up all the time! What a spoilsports...

    There, There! See? The red patch next to that zombie is the thing Maya came for~

    Opportunity! Maya's guard slacked off for a second right as we arrived to our destination. Caves of the dead, same place Maya harvested flowers last time. And just like last time, there was a zombie around~ Hehehe, time for a prank~ So Maya rushed straight for it!

    Stop! At least wait until I take care of the zombie!

    Guard shouted as she shot forward, punching Zombie and making it explode all over the place.


    It is safe for now. Why did you rush ahead even though you saw the zombie next to it?


    Who would have thought Maya's guard would be so evil... Taking revenge for a prank by ruining Maya's flowers... Maya will be nice now, alright? Please don't bully her flowers...

    Why... They did nothing wrong... You cant just burn zombies next to Maya's snac... Next to flowers Maya needs!

    Sigh... Well, there's nothing Maya can do. She will have to do with whats left and look for more later...

    Maya carefully wrapped her bleeding hands in her sleeves and got to work at flowers not ruined by guard's revenge...

    Diagonal cut around half inch from the ground, just like Lady Lyra taught Maya~ See? No sap leaking~ Harvested like by Lady Lyra herself! Although she said something about this being one of the easiest plants to harvest. At least from those needing special method to do so...

    Never mind that, just like Lady Lyra~

    With all still useful plants harvested, Maya had 8. Quest needed just ten. Odd number given that they grow in patches and can be easily harvested by handfuls at the time~ Well, Maybe quest giver didn't know~ Not like Maya will complain.

    Well, Anyway... Maya wonders where that second Zombie from the last time went. Welp, Maya doesn't really care~ Let us explore then! For each burnt, lets find two more to collect!

    Maya cheerfully said as she hopped away in search of more blood lillies~

    After a short while guard spotted a big patch, even bigger than the one she ruined earlier.

    Hey look, aren't those the same flowers from earlier? There are even more of them this time

    Ohh? Maya can't see that well. Welp, we can come closer to take a look! But if they are, There's definitely enough for Maya~

    Keep an eye for Zombies, alright? Maya saw two last time, but it was dark and they were close to cave, sooo, there could be many more around~

    This time, Maya took it slowly as there are some rather sharp rocks around~ So no hopping closer to them.

    Umu, I shall keep a lookout to not let anything get close.

    Ehh, Guard tapped on Maya's shoulder right after saying so and what do you know, a Zombie magically appeared where she pointed! Second Zombie~ Or Maya's guard is necromancer and is having fun... Well, whatever~

    Should I take it down now while it's still far from us?

    Maya does't really care. Just don't get any Zombie bits on her flowers please?


    Saying so, Maya got to harvesting the ones before her. There was at least few handfuls here! Much more than Maya needs to complete this part of her quest~ Well, unless someone gets Zombie all over them again. That would be most unfortunate...

    While harvesting lilies, Maya didn't look around at all. Who knows, Maybe unknown dangers lurked just behind the corner~ (They didn't) Only danger Maya met there was dangerous look guard gave her when she finished dealing with Zombie and caught Maya snacking on one of Maya's flowers~

    When Maya noticed guard looking... Maya innocently put half eaten flower next to others and continued earnestly harvesting the rest like a good girl she is~

    Yay~ We are finished here~ Next, we will go... Ugh... Where is Maya supposed to go?


    You need to collect lupine grass, if I remember right it grows on almost every plain and has a tendency to attract wolves. Maybe we should look for sign of wolves and follow their tracks?

    Ah... Yes! Plains~ Well, it is time for Maya to cut some weeds~

    Maya said as half eaten Lillie appeared in her mouth again~ Oh, how life is good.

    Ohh?

    Before she could say anymore, Maya's throat was slit~

    ...

    It seems Maya was ambushed? Maybe there were dangers lurking around after all...

    ...

    As evil throat slicing human stared at guard, thinking Maya dead, Maya caught his arm and though {BURN} And burned he did~

    His whole world, in an instant filled with pain. Every piece of his being in agony, burning, freezing, getting cut to pieces and every other sort of pain human can possibly feel replaying over and over, seemingly for all eternity, all in the single moment~

    Maya was kicked away with more force than a human should ever have. Like a kite with strings cut, she flew, then tumbled on rocky mountainside before stopping, becoming but a twisted form of what human figure should look like.

    As she laid there, his eyes met with hers. All semblance of humanity void within. Crazed by pain, for now he was but a beast~

    It took a while for guard to deal with throat slicing person and as Maya couldn't really do anything, she didn't really care~ Guard will win or help her or other human will and he will kill Maya. Only time will show~

    Hey, can you talk?

    My~ Luck is on Maya's side as her guard won! Well, only a bit of luck as her guard was stupid and didn't know sliced throat means no talking~

    Maya's lips moved yet no words came out. Only wheezing sound escaped her sliced throat. Complicated expression formed on her face before she nodded at some of her limbs bent in strange way and looking at guard hopefully.

    Fortunately, guard understood that, as she started to put Maya's arm and legs back the way they should be.

    Maya smiled at guard as she fixed her limbs, but as she tried to take a step, Maya had to stop herself. Pointing at sun, she made big circle with her hand until she pointed at it again and then walked fingers towards the plains.


    Are you asking to get carried back to the plain before the sun sets?


    Maya shaked head as she, sat down, then pointed at the sun to make a circle only to stand up again as her finger reached sun yet again and walked fingers towards the plains.

    After Maya's little show, she hopefully looked at guard. Maybe this time she understood?

    You....want.me to make a camp and a bonfire before the sunset? ....... wait, you are not asking me to burn down the plain are you?

    You are saying we should camp for the night in the plains?


    Maya's hand smacked her face, making fresh spur of blood fly all around... Looking at the mess she just made, Maya laid on it and pretended to sleep~

    After a while, she pointed at herself, pretended to sleep again, then at sun, made circle and as her finger pointed at it again, walked fingers away.

    Umm, you will be dead once the sun sets or something, and.you need to.......eat aa blood lily?

    ...

    Maya gave up and started to ignore guard.

    Having a snack was a good idea tho... So Maya fished out a piece of withered wriggling vine and munched on it as she rested~

    ********************************************************

    Only next morning did Maya stood up again and pointed towards the plains~ On-wards! She wanted to say, but could not... Welp, what can Maya do... So she started walking silently.

    Maya's way to the plains was so uneventful it was painful. Or it was just painful since all Maya's limbs are half eaten, been bent wrong way recently and her throat is still open? Maybe. How would Maya know... Anyway, probably since all blood already left Maya's body, she stopped bleeding on everything already~ So, Yay?

    Maya should really take a break soon...

    Maybe I should carry you on my back after all? You would just need point me in the direction you wish to go.

    Maya doesn't mind~ No need to dirty your clothes. Although, we could take a bath before coming back to guild~ Just kidding! Maya doesn't want worms...

    Maya wanted to say such, but as she couldn't really talk... She just looked at guard, smiled, and continued walking~

    Soon enough, first patches of lupine grass became visible so Maya picked up her pace to finish as soon as possible.

    Just when Maya got to first patch, guard tapped Maya's shoulder and told her to wait just a moment. Then she proceeded to stare at doggy that was close by until it ran away... Poor doggy.

    Okay, now it is safe to collect them.


    Anyway~ When guard looked at Maya and smiled reassuringly after bullying doggy, Maya could only give back bitter smile and get back to work harvesting every piece of lupin grass in sight. There was no method to this. Maya asked Lady Lyra and all she got was "Lupin Grass? Oh, yeah, that... Just cut it. Doesn't matter what you do with it, really... Its just a weed."

    So, you are not exactly alive right? You didn't die from blood loss or seem to feel any pain, but you don't feel like an immortal or undead either. Are you some sort of spirit possessing that body?

    Immortal or undead... Spirit... Is Maya being insulted? Well, maybe guard just really doesn't know and Maya can have fun with it?

    Maya turned to guard, eyes unfocused, teeth bared and growling~ Well, her attempt at growl was more of a hiss due to current circumstances...

    Oh so you are an undead? Wow so scary~

    ...

    Maya's pride in her acting skills hurt, she sulked while getting back to cutting grass... Maya will show her... Just wait...

    As Maya finished gathering all the grass she needed, she may have kept adding more to what guard carried until she seemed uncomfortable. Or it may have been coincidence~

    Anyway, as Maya was satisfied with her revenge, she nodded, pointed the way to guild and off they were~

    *******************************************************

    The rest of trip back was yet again uneventful~ Except fact that Maya's stomach now hurts too... Trying to eat lupin grass didn't seem to agree with it. Maybe Maya should restrain herself...

    Anyway, as Maya got back, she showed guard where to put all the herbs and went to make a report~
    27 blood lilies -10 for quest leaves Maya with 17 extra~
    A lot of Lupin grass. Most of it thrown away as soon as guard went away >.>; Maya will keep 5 extra handfuls in case she needs it?

    Maya has now throat slit~
    Also, her hands and legs will heal enough to not be bother before next quest.

    ((Managed to compress 3.4k words into 2.something :p Yay?))

    @AliceShiki @michael.kx5 @Zero300

    ((BTW, it's 2 am here so if some part is obviously missing or you see mistake, please tell me. I'll fix it... Tomorrow.))
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2019
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  17. MvD

    MvD New Member

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    "Here's the report for my quest, Carving Holy Symbols," said Cour to the receptionist.
    Upon hearing the receptionist’s reminder, Cour immediately leave the guild. After asking some people around about the church’s location, he arrived there. His curiosity grew after seeing a structure he had never seen before. He loitered around it for some time, and decided to enter after some time.

    His eyes were moving here and there, inspecting every little detail of the church. After seeing the newcomer that was standing idly by the door, a person approached him.

    “May I know what is your business, sir?” a young woman with a white robe said.

    While looking at some other people which he assumed were other adventurers that were on the same task as him, he replied, “I’m here to help in creating the holy symbols.”

    “Ah, the holy symbols. Follow me, please.”

    While following the woman, he admired the architecture of the place. Sculptures and paintings of the gods they worship was lined along the hallway. He knew next to nothing about them, though. Finally, they arrived at what looks like a storage room.

    She took a page of paper from a chest that contained lots of it, and gave it to him.

    “This is the design, thank you for helping us.”

    “No problem,” he replied.

    He stored the paper design inside a pouch and parted ways with the woman. After arriving at his inn, he didn’t work on the symbols immediately. He ordered some food, and enjoyed them by eating peacefully. Then, he finally went to his room to start creating the symbols.

    He locked the door, grabbed some books about carving, and cleaned his table. Placing the tools on the top of the table while inspecting the design, he created an illusion of the completed product and made it float in front of him.

    A few illusions that depicted the way to carve, based on his books, was also projected beside the holy symbol one. He started to create one of the symbols. Following the illusions based on the carving guide, he moved his hands and carved the symbol.

    The process required him to invest his concentration into it, as the symbol was a little bit complicated for a beginner like him. Even though he had created a lot of complicated charms, it still is different from carving.

    Thus, even though it didn’t take too long, he finished one symbol. The quality isn’t quite the same as he imagined, and it bothered him. He spent some more time trying to perfect the symbol, but the result is the same, if not shoddier. In his frustration, he made the next symbols more carefully.

    Time passed, and night came. Stuck in his room for hours, Cour was sweating and breathing roughly after concentrating all the time. In the end he was only able to carve eleven of them, though their qualities differed. The later ones were better than the previous ones.

    “It’s finally done,” he muttered.

    He dispelled all the illusions and laid on his bed. Closing his eyes, he remembered something.

    His body that was on the bed got up and grabbed the holy symbols.

    “Better safe than sorry.”

    It wasn’t guaranteed that he was going to wake up late or early, so he took it safe by giving the symbols now.

    He ran across the night streets, the light of the moon shining down onto him. He went to the church and entered. There, he was greeted by the same young woman from before.

    “Are you here to turn in the holy symbols?” she asked.

    “Yeah. I’m sorry that the quality isn’t that good though,” replied Cour with an apologetic smile.

    The woman giggled and said, “It’s fine, even the most prodigious man could never master an art within a day.”

    He handed the symbols made by him. After seeing the varied quality of the symbols, she arched an eyebrow, and Cour could only laugh awkwardly at that.

    By the time he left the church, it was already midnight. He slowly walked towards the adventurers guild, where even now the lights weren’t out. The midnight atmosphere was calming and beautiful, and he reached the guild in no time.

    Inside of it, the adventurers are still doing their business. The contrast between the quiet midnight town and the guild’s lively atmosphere was appreciated. It erased the feeling of loneliness one might experience when walking alone on midnight.

    He went to see the receptionist, and gave his report.

    @AliceShiki
     
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  18. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    So... Caves of the Dead having undeads mysteriously disappear, A mysterious guard captain that looks like trouble and... The whole problem in Agral being completely unnatural?

    I ought to say I don't envy the people living there... It's a good thing it's none of the guild's business to solve that, but... Dear gods, what a mess.

    We never had that much of a great relationship with the guards from the rest of Ternus though, so too bad for Rustis, we honestly don't care for him~ *giggles*

    The caves are worrisome though... Hopefully it's not more trouble... Haa...


    Well, here are your rewards, 16 Large Copper Coins to divide as you see fit and 4 guild points for each~

    Take care now~
     
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  19. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    ((Okay... I have a lot to say on this report... *deep breath*

    For starters, I'm denying it entirely. Either re-do it from scratch or make some heavy edits or just pretend it never existed. Right now it's no good.

    There are many problems here, so I will need to tackle them slowly... For now though, I'll say that you're absolutely not allowed to kill triple digits of goblins in a single report. Period.

    This rant will be big, so I'll put all the problems with your report in a spoiler... It's needed.))

    ((This is a magical item. You specifically listed the sword as:
    You clearly said it is mundane and now you said it was magical. I can't allow that, the item should be kept as mundane.))
    ((And now you bought 3 potions with who knows what money... Let me quote the registration thread.
    You can't afford potions. Even if you bargained heavily, you'd still be way below the price for a single potion, much less 3.))
    ((There were many different points that I considered quoting for this, but I think this one is the best so far...
    There are a bunch of inconsistencies with your writing saying you're out mana then casting dust magic, easily killing armored goblins with a sword of all things, beating them up as if they were nothing, but...

    5 hours of non-stop fighting after who knows how long traveling and going through mana exhaustion? And killing 67 enemies by yourself in this meanwhile?

    No, just no. You need some common sense and your character seriously lacks it. Goblins aren't hard enemies for sure, but beating a group of 5 of them is already quite a feat as it's very easy to get overwhelmed by numbers at this point... 67 though? That's ridiculous, you'd die from muscle aches and exhaustion.))
    You have a very very big misconception of what's the guild's role is and what our influence is.

    The guild is a group of mercenaries that exist to give jobs for people that have no background, qualifications or connections. It's a place filled with ruffians that have a very high death ratio during quests.

    The guild is also a small organization in a small backwater region of a small country in the middle of its worst and most dangerous region.

    We're not heroes, we're not saviors, we cannot do miracles nor do we have any intention to do so. The guild's influence is pretty small overall. We don't have any influence in the country at large, much less the world at large.))
    ((That's not the background of Flaminis at all, creating new lore is not frowned upon, but you can't change lore already established by others.

    Please check Flaminis' wiki page for details.))
    ((I told you in your last report and I'll tell you again. You cannot set big pieces of lore without contacting staff first about it.

    There is no Age of Gods, the timeline is split between Genesis Era, Dragons' Era and Modern Era. Please check the Timeline for details.

    There is no "The Goddess" in AG's universe. There are multiple deities and they all have very limited ability to interfere.

    Summoned heroes are not a thing. Rather, spatial magic and interdimensional travel are pretty much impossible... Generally speaking, those that come to AG's world end up coming due to an issue on their end.

    There is no Demon Kings Dark Reign, the ones that had a reign of tiranny were the dragons.))
    ((I don't know why you suddenly started calling Aria your nee-san, but you should stop. I can handle it in NUF as I can just ignore you calling me nee-sama, but Aria has nothing to do with it. Please refrain from mixing Alice and Aria.

    Secondly, Aria is by no means strong, she'd die to a single goblin. She doesn't know how to fight and would be too scared in the face of danger to do anything. There is a reason she works as a guild receptionist instead of an adventurer, she is not cut for life-risking jobs.))
    ((The Hobgoblins of Flaminis were fully aware of the raising number of goblins, they have been fending off their advances and killing those goblins that dared attack the village for quite a while now.

    They can also buy some information from the guild when it's related to what happens near them. It's pretty much impossible for them to not know it.

    Lastly, I don't want any more dungeons near Nagrand, Dagon's Dungeon is already plenty, and there are suspicions of the Caves of the Dead being a Dungeon too. Any other one is unnecessary... Not to mention, Dungeons don't form quickly nor in places with active settlements in it, they need time to form and to not be interrupted by people coming to reap it when it barely started.))
    ((You just mobilized an entire village's workforce and combat force in one fell swoop due to the danger one adventurer warned them about... And you made them stay 4 days inside it? With no food preparations or anything? What about the other villagers? How would they survive without guards to take care of it?

    This plain and simply wouldn't happen.))
    ((No. Plain and simply no. You don't go and create a group of goblins with enough gear to pose a threat to the whole kingdom.))
    ((This doesn't fit your description of sand and dust magic at all... Look, you can't simply say "it's just simple and normal magic with nothing special about it" and then create Sand Golems, alright? Be consistent with what you say and do.))
    ((The same applies to this btw.))
    ((The bounties don't need to be reported to the guild... The whole reporting thing is an OOC thingy.

    You just deliver the ears to Lakeside Village and the bounty is done, just that.))
    ((Okay, those were the major problems. Now to reply to a few notes I suppose...))
    ((You used Large scale magic, don't bother with saying you didn't... And no, I'm not happy, I'm annoyed by the time it took me to write this reply due to how many headaches your report gave me.))
    ((You don't have the right to even set this kind of hidden fortune, much less retrieve it.))
    ((This means you messed up, you're not supposed to get this many coins this fast. Use some common sense and compare the rewards of the bounty to the rewards of the quests.

    We have an expected progression of the players as they clear quests, and you're totally messing that up. That just doesn't work.))
    ((Sorry to break it to you, but I just erased it. Don't even bother with a part 2 because this report is a huge mess and I denied the whole of it.

    *sighs* Seriously, don't go blowing things out of proportion like that... You messed up really badly this time. Try working with way smaller numbers and way less trouble in future occasions...))
     
  20. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Well Maya-chan... I have a lot of things to say, but...

    Let's just praise you for coming back alive. I'm sure the requester will be pleased with what your hard work~

    Since 3 coins were already given to Rei-chan, you'll get only 3 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points~

    Take care and... Try resting a bit, you need it.

    ((*pokes @Zero300 and @michael.kx5 too*))