Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist's Desk

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

  1. Fairy-chan

    Fairy-chan 『Appreciates Cuteness』

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    "I am back, the wine stash has been safely recovered."

    After accepting the request, I wished to contact the lady in question for any clues I could get in the location of said drink stash, however... Since the requester has been hidden by the guild, this option was fruitless.

    This was troubling. I decided to try gathering information in other ways then, since it would be futile to try digging up everywhere to the East of Nagrand. The first places I visited were taverns, I tried asking questions over rather they knew a woman that liked drinking wine and if they heard anything mentioned about a secret wine stash. However, this search was mostly fruitless or they were either oblivious or wanted coins for the information, which was something I could not afford to give.

    It didn't help that some taverns didn't even let me in due to my age, which is... Understandable, but by no means helpful. I spent the whole morning searching before giving up and flying back home to prepare lunch... Dad wasn't home again though, so I ate alone. Makes me wonder if he'll even notice I got a job at adventuring... I guess it doesn't matter.

    After I finished eating, I decided to try a new source of information, the guards. I flew to the gates and tried to see if they knew anything about the lady, at first they were skeptical over why a small girl like me wanted to know more about a drunkard woman, but after explaining my circumstances as an adventurer that is looking for a stash that she foolishly buried, they actually tried to help, which was something I was quite grateful to.

    The woman's identity was apparently named 'Lisa', she was well known for being a drunkard in most taverns of the town and not many other women were both wine lovers and independent enough to go out of town to bury a container of wine somewhere in the wilds. While this was by no means confirmation of her identity, it was enough to start with.

    None of the guards currently on post heard anything about a hidden stash however, but since this was hidden some years back, it's perfectly plausible that the people that were around when she dug said stash are not working as gate guards anymore, so they led me to a waiting room and contacted their superiors over the matter.

    I'm not sure how long it took, but the angle of the light coming inside the room changed considerably while I waited, I would guess the first bell past noon would soon ring. In any case, a guard dressed better than his peers came in and talked to me, apparently he was now a sergeant that once manned the East Gates.

    Lisa apparently was a daughter of a minor noble of Seditio, whose family retreated to Ternus once the civil war broke out as they no longer had any political power to consider it worth it to remain in the kingdom. However, faced with unusually high discrimination over their rabbit-kin heritage in the lower regions of Ternus, they traveled North towards Nagrand and bought a big house in town with their large suns of money.

    After that point, it seems other relatives from Seditio also traveled to Nagrand, but after they had already lost most of their belongings, so they weren't able to buy as many luxurious things as Lisa's family could, which led to them frequently visiting her father's house to get drinks and participate in parties.

    While the father seemed more than happy to show off all his money, Lisa was mostly annoyed by it all and became a drunkard.

    It was an interesting story no doubt, but I had to wonder why it was necessary to share all this with me, I suppose this sergeant was her friend and wanted me to feel pity for her, but it's hard to care for a woman that has so much money to the point she can waste it all in wine, she's pathetic.

    After explaining all this, he said that one day she went through the gates with a box while heavily tipsy, and while he was heavily worried for her safety while going out like that, he did not stop her. Which was something he deeply regretted as she didn't come back that day. Some days later however, she came back while bragging over how her wine would never be found anymore because nobody would search for it below the big rock near Flaminis.

    I'm glad I could finally get this information, but it being in Flaminis was troubling, it would take me at least 8h to fly all the way to flaminis in a good wind current, and a big rock is still a very rough location, so I would probably need quite some time to find it there.

    This was no good, dad would never allow me to be away from home for this long, I wonder if I should give up on the quest.

    Either way, I thanked the sergeant for his time and that the information was much appreciated and went back home, I should use this time to try thinking of an excuse to stay this long away.


    The hours passed in a flash and I got no clue of anything that could possibly convince dad that he should let me stay away from home for a few days. I cooked dinner and waited for him, though it was only some time after midnight's bell ring that he came home, long after dinner already got cold.

    I greeted him with a curtsy. "Welcome home, father."

    He looked at me confused, "You are still up at this hour, you should sleep, being up for too long will make you unsightly."

    I bowed before answering, "I apologize father, I will go to bed shortly, should I heat up dinner?"

    "Dinner? There is no need, I already ate, just go to bed." So he already ate... At least dad is eating properly.

    "Understood, then I'll retire, have a great night, father." As I turned to leave, dad called me out for a moment.

    "Oh, and Rigël, I'll be out of town for the next few weeks, there is a good business opportunity going on at Asphodelus and I can't miss it, you will have to make do with preserved food during this time." So dad is going out... Just my luck it seems.

    "Of course, I will, thank you very much for the advance notice, father.

    "Now if you will excuse me." I left dad's presence and went back to my bedroom, the night was a bit chilly and I hugged my bird plushie to calm my rumbling stomach down.

    Stupid dad, at least ask if I already ate... Stupid... Stupid... At some point I noticed my eyes were wet... I just let them flow though... It didn't matter... It never does... Not when it's just us.
    I woke up at the first bell of the morning, I was still sleepy, but I needed to make the most out of the sunlight, so I forced myself to get up.

    From the noises I heard, dad seemed to be preparing some things in his room... Did he even sleep? Probably not, it is unlikely he woke up that earlier than me.

    I flew out of the house and got some water out of the well, I wanted to hurry before the older women got there as I would spent too much time there if they started sharing the space. After getting 3 buckets of water back home, I lit up the firewood to get the bath going and then started preparing breakfast for us both. I made use of the uneaten dinner to do something.

    By the time I was finished, I got close to his room and announced myself. "Father, breakfast is ready, and bath will be prepared shortly."

    He before long replied, "I won't be needing a bath, you can eat your share of the meal and use it, I will go eat later."

    "I see... Then I will be going first, father." You can't even eat a meal with your daughter before leaving? Dad... No, it's for me, it's for me that he is working that hard, I can't complain, I shouldn't complain.

    Breakfast felt bland, even though I made sure to prepare it properly, and it felt lacking, probably because of the lack of dinner, but it will do.

    Then I went to the bath and tried to relax, I will need to get ready to leave to Flaminis as soon as dad goes out, maybe I should try finding a tool to dig the ground to find the stash, though I'm not sure what would be preferred.

    At this point I heard horses moving out... Wait, horses? No! Dad! I flew out of the bath in a hurry, but by the time I got out, dad's carriage was already moving... I wanted to call out to him, but I can't imagine what he would say if he saw me out while still naked... Dad you idiot! You didn't even say goodbye!

    ... How could you? Dad... Mom would never go out without saying goodbye to me first... You're breaking your promise...

    I got back to the bath in order to not catch a cold, but I couldn't endure staying there for long, so I got out, dried myself out, dressed up in some warm clothes and prepared my luggage. Which are just some dried rations, my spellbook, a set of light clothes and a shovel that was lying around in the storeroom. I'll need to properly clean it once I'm back.

    With the rations and the book in a backpack, and the shovel in hand, I flew out. I felt a bit hot with my current get up, but it quickly got colder as I flew up, it didn't take too long to find a wind current to the East, so I got on it and flew away.

    Travel time was mostly uneventful, it was the first I was flying on my own for this long, but it seems there aren't that many flying monsters in this region, which I'm very thankful for. I ended up eating lunch while still in the air without bothering to stop. Not like dried rations will get much better if I'm sitting still.

    Once I was in the plains near Flaminis, I started looking around, 'the big rock' was far too generic of a guideline, but I hoped it would become clear once I got near it.

    After some back and forth in the road while changing between wind currents, I decided to start flying at a lower altitude to search for said rock, and it was honestly easy once I did so, I could now understand why just saying 'the big rock' was enough, it was a rock about five times my size that was directly next to the road.

    Sun would still take a while to set, but it was unlikely I would be able to come back today, so I might as well make the most of the time. I landed on top of the big rock and took my backpack out, then changed my clothes to my lighter attire.

    ... Dad would get angry if he saw me changing clothes in broad daylight, I don't have a carriage, nor a house to change inside though, so it can't be helped.

    Then I started working, digging, it was harder than I initially thought, the soil was somewhat hard and the shovel didn't move it properly... And I had no idea where exactly this stash was, so I had no choice but to keep digging, surely 'below' the big rock was a figurative expression.

    Night fell and no stash was found, I flew to the top of the rock again while dead tired and changed into my warmer attire again. I wished for a bath, but there was no river nearby, so I just ate and got ready to sleep.

    And then I realized I brought no sleeping bag. This will be a cold night, I better hope I don't get a cold amidst this strong wind, would be terrible if I was too weakened to work tomorrow.

    The next day came, and I started digging again, it was a mostly unremarkable day, almost nobody passed nearby since not many had the habit of traveling to Flaminis. From time to time some wolves got near, but I just flew up the rock and was out of their reach... It was also the time I used to rest my very tired arms.

    Then another day came, my arms ached a lot and I didn't have that much strength to swing the shovel again, rather, I might have gotten sick this time. I continued going on though, at this point I decided I might as well try shoveling from the surroundings to the part below the big rock due to lack of options.

    That night had a nightmare that I already forgot, by the time I woke up I felt my sickness getting worse and my arm ached even more and I desperately needed a break... At the same time, taking a break here would not be the best idea, as I would probably only get a worse cold, so I forced myself to keep working.

    Surprisingly, I finally found the stash, took 5 days since I took the quest, but I found it... I was honestly wondering if this thing even existed. It was buried surprisingly deep below the big rock.

    I carefully took it out and almost tripped over my own two feet once I was finally out of the hole. To think those drinks almost broke due to my carelessness, I suppose the words of that receptionist did have some power, I should be more careful around him.

    I really wished to just rest now, but more than that, I just wished to get back home and relax in a bath and in a bed, so I forced myself to start flying back home in my warm clothes with the stash in my backpack and shovel. I'm glad I didn't need to use my spellbook for anything I suppose.

    At around midnight, I finally arrived at Nagrand, so I got down from the high air current and dropped by the gates to get properly identified, the guards were surprised by seeing me out this late, but ended up letting me pass.

    The guild is probably closed at this time, so I didn't even bother with checking and went home and slept straight away.

    The next day I felt terribly sluggish and very very very tired, so I basically cooked some light meals for myself and spent some time in the bath, the guild could wait another day.

    In the seventh day since I took the quest, I finally reached the building, now feeling somewhat better and delivered my report. It was only at this time that I remembered I should actually check the contents of it, and luckily there was indeed a stash of wine in my hands... Gods forbid failing this quest after all this work.
    [OOC]I am assuming the church's bell ring every 2 hours.
    Sorry if I derailed too much, it ended up reaching 2500 words.[/OOC]
    The mysterious lady is named Lisa, she is a fallen noble from Seditio.
    The stash was hidden deep below "The Big Rock" near Flaminis, one might wonder how she even dug the original hole.

    @Nurman
     
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  2. Nurman

    Nurman ( ಠ∩ಠ) [Retired Ton]

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    "Eh, I see. Good job recovering the wine, finding out the identity of the requester isn't something that I would recommend. In this instance it's safe, but usually there's a reason why they're keeping their identity hidden, so be careful that you don't bite off more than you can chew. Especially since you still have family holding you back. Who knows when one day someone traces something back to you, regardless, you should alway leave false trails to avoid getting trac- Whoops, going off on a little tangent there... Here's the 9 Large Copper Coins and 4 points, glad to see that everything is in one piece and thanks for the hard work."
     
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  3. A5G_Reaper

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

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    Task: Goblins are scary! [Available]
    Requester: Oldspice Village
    Quest rank: D-rank
    Rewards: 20 Large Copper Coins.
    Description: As if suddenly discovering a monster den near our village a few weeks ago wasn't enough... We thought we could finally get some rest with the den cleared, but... No, of course not, as if we can ever get rest!
    Goblins attacked us, I know I know, everyone faces off against goblins, but those were different, they were smart, they had tactics, they had equipment, they had mages, it was almost as if we were fighting a small legion from a well-trained army, it was hell!
    Some of the villagers were kidnapped too, we fear for what will happen to them... Please get rid of those goblins and save the people that were taken away by them.



    A gourd sauntered into the guild, radiating a mix of haggard feel and jovial pettiness.

    "Wasn't there a huge influx of goblin problem around? I believe I've cut off the source." He nodded proudly.

    "Ah, what should we do with about six hundred people rescued from the goblins? They're camped outside the city and it's honestly not my problem so I'm dumping it to you." The gourd irresponsibly dropped everything to Aria.
    "Oldspice village again? Wasn't there a whole bunch of quests from there past few weeks?" The gourd mused as he read the quest details. "Perhaps a visit to the archive would be wise."

    *****

    "...yep, it's a huge mess. How is the place even standing? Monsters one after another. Not sure if they're lucky to survive or unlucky to meet it all."

    He returned the reports, thanking the archivist for the help. Taking a short stop at his garden, he collected his knives for the excursion as well as some pointy sticks. Can't hurt to be prepared.

    He arrived at the village by nightfall, the folks grateful for him to come by so quickly. Interviewing them resulted in roughly the same storyline, with a band of goblins attacking the village out of nowhere about three days back. They worked like a trained army instead of a warband, wielding spears in formation to ward off the defenders. They also focused on taking prisoners, mainly young people regardless of gender, as well as anyone with fighting skills. They retreated in an orderly manner just as abruptly as their arrival, having gained the maximum number of prisoners as they could feasibly carry.

    "Odd indeed."

    The gourd mused as he tracked the army's trail. It's three days old but there's no rain to muddle it and regardless of how tough the ground was a passing army would leave some mark.

    "These creatures shouldn't act like this."

    He bent over to check on a bush trampled by several hundred passing feet. There was no subtleness in their path, none of the characteristic of weak creatures near the bottom of the food chain.

    "...sunset, huh? Time to move. Shadowflip."

    *****

    A hundred kilometers through wild land without road, straight into the middle of nowhere. A large clearing was cut out of the forest. There's wooden palisades about twenty meters off the edge of the woods, covering whatever happens inside. It's a decent place to hole up if you want to make it hard for an army to reach you, the gourd would recognize that much.

    He was just in time to caught up with the raiding party. He inwardly did a mental count from the size of the base and its patrols, it would roughly lead to...

    "...about five hundreds at least? Not including civilians and prisoners."

    Well, that would be quite a pickle. Getting rid of them over several weeks weren't a problem, but saving the villagers means he needed to do something quickly.

    "Infiltration it is."

    The goblin camp was disconcertingly well-fortified, but it still shared the similar weakness that aside from the outer ring, security's laxer inside. A combination of Vertigo, Dart, and Shadowflip allowed the gourd to completely bypass the overlapping sentries and the zillions of torches they put up to ensure that the walls are fully illuminated even at night.

    There was some kind of celebration or ceremony in the mustering ground at the center, which means the rest of the camp was rather deserted save for some occasional patrol. Nothing he'd have problem bypassing.

    A wooden stage was raised with a small tower at the middle, where a goblin managed the ungodly feat of looking straight up pompous in makeshift tribal clothing created out of junk. On the stage was the captive villagers bound and gagged, with a ring of goblin guards surrounding them. The atmosphere were heated for some reason, so the gourd started preparing the best angle to strike.

    The goblin on the tower said something in gibberish, in which the crowd cheered and roared more gibberish in reply. The gourd frowned at the behavior. It wasn't the first time these goblins acted out of their normal characteristics... then it clicked.

    "Feels like I'm watching little green humans instead of tribal, mentally retarded creatures."

    At the time, the leading goblin took out a small, goblin-sized lyre. It looked rather beat up with some makeshift repair, wouldn't get a second glance if it sit right in the garbage bin, but the whole crowd quieted with reverence as the goblin started to play.



    There was no sound save for the lyre for the first few minutes. No visible effect beside the previously restless captives becoming calmer and calmer, the gourd himself being too far to properly hear the melody.

    Then the changes happened. The captives shuddered, their skin tone turning green as their height slowly shrunk. Their body was visibly resisting the morph, changed parts returning to normal for a second before morphing again, but it was getting weaker by the second. The victims themselves seemed to be in trance during the whole process.

    "Not happening. Vertigo."

    He let himself fall for a few seconds, cancelling the Brand once he's well overlooking the tower. He draw his blade and aimed, waiting for the fall's momentum to fully negate before tapping into the other Brand.

    "Dart."

    He dashed like a comet. Would be easy to kill a goblin, but a light shattering sound rang halfway through. Thd goblin leader seemed to be warned and leapt aside. He claimed one arm but his quarry already fell off the tower, screaming like a dying pig in the process.

    Every single goblins turned their sight on him.

    "KILL HIM!" The disarmed leader squealed in common.

    "Oh boy."

    It felt like a tidal wave that followed him wherever he went, Darting just above the crowd to pursue the leader while it tried to not get stabbed to death. It was rather difficult because the vermin kept throwing its own to block his way, which he's disinclined to kill.

    The gourd deliberately slowed down and waited for the slippery little bastard to be slightly apart of the crowd. The chance came when it's at the periphery between one mob rushing him and another new horde of reinforcement, where there's about three meters empty gap surrounding it.

    "Hardlight!"

    A dozen platforms winked into existence, conpletely boxing the goblin leader. The gourd disengaged and darted into the box, the army outside madly attacked and cracked the encirclement but it wasn't fast enough to save their leader. Nowhere near enough.

    "No! Impossible! This exalted Dungeon Lord Razzrak have finally returned to my youth! I brought the goblinization a cenyury early! It cannot end like this-"

    "Oh, shut up."

    He cut off the goblin's head. Then stomped it like an overripe melon. And diced the body, especially the heart, just to make sure. There's something shiny amidst the butchered corpse once he's finished, so he picked it up.

    Then he finally looked around, realizing that the army stopped trying to break the barriers for a short while.

    "...oh."

    Most of the mob were rolling on the ground, cracks and snaps rang through as their body reverted to their original species. Few weren't changing back, looking completely bewildered and unsure what to do. Probably actual goblins then. The gourd Darted up and spotted the captured villagers still on the stage, looking warily at the goblin guards that used to surround them now squirming on the ground. He landed in front of the group, yelling to get their attention.

    "Alright, my job is to get you all out of here safe and sound so follow my lead. Hardlight." He slashed open his Branded hand, consuming blood as he created a long line of platform straight out of the base. He ushered the villagers to make haste, barely reaching the woods before sounds of violence started from within the base.

    "I'll take a look, don't stray." He left them with some stolen spears to defend themselves. Closer to pointy staves, but it'd do in a pinch.

    "...whoops?"

    What he saw was the goblins being lynched by the unmorphed folks, which outnumbered them maybe ten to one. The riot lasted short as it was bloody, the people probably remembered a good deal of what happened during their time as a goblin.

    The gourd popped on the center platform and pondered how to take care of this mess.

    "Alright folks, listen up!"
    -Found the source of goblin problem. Bladed it to death.
    -The lyre have been recovered. It's junk. The gourd give it to Aria.
    -a broken necklace was taken from the corpse. Perhaps it had something to do with how it avoided the first deathblow?
    -Rescued about six hundred people, taken by the goblins from villages or kidnapped at the road. There are some Tower acolytes among the mix and those are clamoring for preferential treatment.
    -Residens of Oldspice village returned to their home.
    @AliceShiki
     
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  4. Haxagen

    Haxagen Fallen's|Addicted to Gacha

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    "We're back! It went swimmingly~"
    "Pleased to meet you, I'm Elaine!"

    The girl holds out her hand.

    "The pleasure is mine, I am Venefica." She grasped Elaine's held out hand. Once finished with their greeting, Venefica continued.

    "Based on what the quest had said, the village seems to be quite far. If you have your supplies prepared, shall we go on our way?"

    "Aye, lets! I've taken a look around, but it seems that there aren't any caravans leaving for our destination so soon, so we'll have to find another way of transport. Should I go and borrow a horse?"

    Elaine considered walking, but with any luck, she'll just end up getting both of them lost.

    "Horse... I have never rode one before, but if that is our best option, I do not see why not."

    Though she said that, there is still some hesitation stemming from her lacking experience in riding mounts.

    "Mkay. I'll go see what I can find."

    Elaine runs off to look for a suitable horse, and before long, she had led a rather muscular stallion back to where Venefica was waiting.

    "This fellow seems sturdy enough, so I guess he's it.”

    Looking at the muscular and tall stallion which Elaine seemed to have found from who knows where, Venefica could only resign herself. But when she was about to attempt to climb up the horse, she realized that she had no idea how to, and whether she could even climb up with her height.

    Without much choice, she asked Elaine for help, "Could you... help me up?"

    "Sure. Just...Give me a minute."

    Elaine faltered on her end as well, just realising that issue and thinking of a solution. Eventually, she found one, but without much assurance that it was going to work well.

    "I guess...I'll lift you up?"

    "...Sure..." Without any other choice, she could only have Elaine lift her up and carefully climb onto the horse's back from there.

    'What a... peculiar start...' Venefica thought to herself as she climbed.

    Elaine climbs onto the horse as well, sitting at the rear, before she took out an average sized map, placing it against the horse's mane so that the girl in front could see as well. The village in question was marked out with a circle.

    "Three days at top speed, so...about maybe a four day journey. Let's start?"

    "Yes." Said Venefica with a slightly uncertain nod. Then, she felt the horse moving with the sound of clopping. Slowly, the horse moved faster and faster until the surroundings seemed to turn into a faint blur.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    On the fifth day, the horse came to a stop somewhere outside a village, tired. The trip there had taken a whole extra day, mostly because Elaine had went off on the wrong road about halfway, resulting in them needing to take a detour back to their intended destination.

    "We're here. Finally."

    The embarrassed girl coughs a few times.

    Gotten used to riding a horse, Venefica quietly chuckled.

    "Let us ask around and find where the village chief resides." Just as she said those words, Venefica noticed a passing villager.

    "The sir over there." She called out, "Could you tell us where the village chief reside?"

    Noticing that he was the only other person there, the villager turned to look at them, "His house is at the center of the village, though you could barely call the buildings here houses anymore." As he grumbled those words, the villager continued on his way.

    "He's got a point, the houses all look like they're about to collapse. We're definitely in the right village, let's go."

    Elaine prodded the stallion a few times, causing it to begin a slow trot, heading for the centre of the village. Though the stallion seemed to snort ever so slightly; perhaps it was also exasperated at it's rider's inability to find the right direction.

    It was not long that the two reached the center of the village where a group of people seemed to be discussing something. But knowing that the acid rain could come at any moment, Venefica decided to interrupt them.

    "Excuse our interruption, but might any of you be the village chief Normand who submitted a quest to the guild?"

    "Yes, that'll be me! And since I don't know you two, I assume you're here because you've heard about our issues!"

    A short, balding man makes his way out of the group, talking loudly.

    "Solve this issue immediately!"

    Elaine pokes her companion, and whispered quietly.

    "I don't really like this guy..."

    "I do not like his attitude either..." Venefica whispered back before saying to the group.

    "We are indeed here to solve the issue. But first, could you all please tell us anything you might know of this acid rain? How big is the area it encompass, how long has it been here specifically, and have you found any clues as to what might have caused it?"

    The short baldy seemed to pause a bit before replying, his voice just as loud as before.

    "Aide!"

    A thin, wiry man poked his head out of the crowd in response.

    "My aide will fill you in on all the details. Now, I expect the issue to be solved within two days, before our crops are damaged even further!"

    Elaine frowns.

    "This guy is really dislikeable..."

    Although she empathized with Elaine's words, Venefica focused her attention to the thin aide.

    "Now, could you explain the situation to us?"

    In response, he nodded and begun his explanation.

    To put it short, the rain seemed to be stuck in the village and never crossed the mountain or rivers. Even when the rain stopped, the cloud above would still look slightly gray and not long after, the acid rain would continue. Apparently, the situation has been going on for almost a week and even after several young men went out to examine the surroundings, they noticed nothing off.

    After the thin aide finished his explanation, Venefica had him leave before saying to Elaine.

    "It seems the acid rain came about unnaturally. Acid rains should not have lasted so long and for it to only encompass the village and its surroundings is too unnatural."

    "Let's hope it's not magical in nature, because if that's the case, I'll be of no help. Although I reckon a guy like him would tend to make enemies easily."

    Elaine gestured with her chin, pointing to the mayor's house.

    "But if they've lived here for a while yet couldn't notice if something was off, then the culprit, assuming there is one, should be quite familiar with their ins and outs. Perhaps some kind of watchman...although if there's really a culprit, I feel as if we're being watched right now, and that's a creepy idea..."

    Hearing her words, Venefica also felt suspicious and discreetly examined the surrounding villagers. It was then that she noticed a group of children peeking through the back of a tattered building. Seeing them, Venefica came to an idea and decided to approach them while calling out.

    "The children over there, could I ask you all something?"

    Noticing her, the kids seemed to tense up and came to an argument between one another. Confused and curious, Venefica stopped in place, waiting to see what they are planning.

    Several moments later, a child was pushed out from the group and nervously approached her.

    Slightly amused, Venefica took out bag and said, "Answer several of our questions and these will be yours." She then opened the mouth of the bag, revealing a bunch of wild fruit and berries she picked up on the way as rationing. The sight caused the child's eyes to shine as he nodded vehemently.

    "Good. First, is there anything special about the village that you know of? Maybe a weird villager or maybe a weird place? Anything that seems to be weird."

    The child went into a thoughtful silence before finally saying.

    "Um... there's this one place the adults tell us not to approach, they said there is some big evil there and no one should come close to it or they'll be eaten and never come back..."

    After saying that, the child went quiet. Realizing that there is nothing else he could say, Venefica gave the bag to the child and went back to Elaine to share her findings.

    "Oookay...That's definitely suspicious. If the adults wanted the children to keep out of that place at all costs, then there's definitely something there. We should go and investigate, this place is giving me more and more discomfort the longer I stay here."

    Saying thus, Elaine gestures at the horse.

    "I don't know what this place they speak of is, and the more I hear about this, the more...black magicky...it sounds. I don't really know anything about magic, to be honest, so we'll have to depend on you for answers...sorry."

    Elaine bit her lip.

    Hearing her words, Venefica smiled wryly.

    "It is of no problem. But as far as I am able to tell, it should not be black magic. At most, they are using containment magic to keep the acid rain from leaving the area. But what I am curious of is where the source of the acid rain came from. As far as I know, acid rain comes from polluted air, but for it to last for so long and periodically too, there must be a constant source of the polluted air."

    "Constant source of air...maybe the underground? I've been told that however bad the surface looks, the underground is a thousand times worse...Say, did the kid say where this forbidden place is? Because..."

    All this time, the horse had been on a light trot, leaving the village behind. She was distracted, which meant that the horse had essentially gone in a random direction.

    In front of them was a weird statue, perhaps as tall as a cottage house. Behind the statue was a weather beaten path, and the path led off to a small entrance jutting out of the ground.

    "...I think we found our evil place."

    The moment they opened the small entrance, a gloomy air seemed to escape from it, causing the surrounding to seemingly turn colder. All indication pointed to the obvious conclusion that this place is suspicious. Furthermore, they could see that beyond the entrance is a path which led underground, obviously man made with the set of stone stairs.

    "This is... a bit too obvious..." Muttered Venefica as the corner of her lips twitched to a wry smile.

    Then, with a short incantation, a ball of light appeared on the palm of her hand. She then turned towards Elaine.

    "Shall we go?"

    "Let's. I'll take point."

    Elaine unsheathed her blade, the pale ivory gleaming in the magelight, as she walked in front of the other girl. If something happened, she as the fighter would be able to respond quicker without endangering her magic-oriented partner.

    As the pair delved deeper through the path, Venefica noticed that the deeper they went, the more it well-maintained the path looked. Just as she was about to voice her doubts, the pair finally arrived at the end of the path.

    What lies beyond caused her eyes to widen.

    "A lab?" She muttered.

    "Take care now..."

    Elaine mumbles, using her free hand to push open the door. Contrary to her expectations, they weren't attacked. Well, not yet.

    The door opened to show a rather large lab, mostly cluttered with paper piles, tables, and odd materials. Elaine could see that the place was extremely clustered together, although they were also packed neatly.

    What caught her attention the most, however, were the glass tubes in the centre. Most of them were already shattered, but there were still maybe one or two that was still intact. And amongst those, there was one tube that contained...something.

    "That...looks like a human, doesn't it? But why is it missing it's hands and feet?"

    Venefica who followed Elaine's gaze also caught sight of the limbless humanoid residing within the giant glass tube. At first, she too was confused, until she noticed something off.

    "Be careful, I sense no sign of life from it. At least, no natural life…”

    Elaine mumbles something under her breath about how bored people were, to create things like that.

    "So it's not alive? But..."

    She stared at the clear liquid in which the humanoid was suspended in. Bubbles were floating upwards, and they unmistakably came from the humanoid nose...Elaine allowed her sword arm to lower, the blade hovering just a few inches off the ground.

    "It looks like it's breathing, isn't it? Like it's sleeping, having a long dream...This is creepy. No wonder the locals said that this place was evil."

    *Clang*

    Her ears perked up, as Elaine heard the tiny banging noise in the vicinity. It sounded like something had fallen off something else. Maybe a metal item had fallen off a table? But as soon as she came up with that idea, she denied it immediately.

    *Clang*...*Clang*…*Clang*…

    Glancing around to check that the immediate area was clear, Elaine turned to face the door which they had entered from, moving to put herself between the door and her companion. She then whispered quietly.

    "Something's coming. And I really don't think they're friendly."

    Just as Elaine's words ended, Venefica caught sight of something coming out of the darkness. It was a humanoid, similar to the one inside the tank, but with limbs. Only this time, she was able to take a clearer look at its features.

    Featureless, hairless, and lifeless. Yet they moved all the same. But it was no undead as they seemed nothing like a corpse.

    Before Venefica had the chance to continue her thoughts, she noticed another one of that creature appearing, trailing right behind the first one.

    Elaine risks a feint to see how the creatures would respond, and to her shock, the one in front immediately ducked. The way it had moved was definitely unlike the skeletons that she had seen shambling in the Caves of the Dead. Then she heard the cracking from behind, soon followed by the sound of liquid splattering on the floor, and groaned inwardly. At least the numbers advantage wasn't too much against them, yet.

    Then, she smelled it; the unfamiliar, nauseating smell that was sickeningly sweet, yet potentially deadly. As far as she could tell, it didn't do any direct harm to her, but it pricked her skin, and gave her bad vibes.

    "These things smell weird. Like...they don't have the same musk as humans do. In fact, I don't even know if they are alive..."

    Silently agreeing with her words, Venefica took out her staff. Though it did not help much, it was better than nothing. She then turned her focus towards the limbless being which fell out of the glass container, choosing to leave her back to Elaine.

    "Do tell me if you require assistance."

    With that, she finally took a careful look at the limbless being. It was then that she noticed the water covering its whole self, remnants from when it was inside the container. An idea then appeared in her head which she soon put to work.

    With a short incantation, Venefica used dark magic to rapidly lower the temperature around the limbless being, low enough to quickly freeze water around the limbless being.

    Soon enough, the being was soon covered in a thin layer of ice, which hardly did anything other than slowing it down.

    "So being cold does not help, time to experiment then." Muttering those words, Venefica started to throw one spell after another of differing elements at the being, hoping for one of them to be effective against it.

    "I guess I'd better try to cut down the numbers so we're even, I don't know what these things are, so I don't have any idea how good they are at fighting, but I'd rather not find out the painful way..."

    Watching the puppets move slowly towards her, Elaine targeted a point where she reckoned would be weak --- the joints of the arm. Then, she placed her left foot behind the right, and pushed forward with the momentum.

    "Hi---YAAH!"

    The moment she struck the arm, Elaine immediately noticed the difference.

    So tough! This feels more like steel than flesh!

    Visually, the arm had a hole drilled into it, exposing nothing but darkness underneath. Then, as she watched, the hole started to close slowly.

    "What in the---these things can regenerate? That's unfair?!"

    After a few rounds of experiment, Venefica realized that this thing is nigh invulnerable to the average attacks and elements, furthermore, they could even regenerate. In the end, she chose to take a little risk and approach it.

    Just as she did, she noticed something about this creature. There is a patch of crystals embedded on its back which has the exact same color with its skin, making it hard to see it clearly in the dark. Curious, she smacked the patch of crystal with her staff. At the exact same moment, the creature suddenly trashed around wildly. Taking it as an indication of progress, Venefica shouted towards Elaine.

    "Try attacking the patch of crystals on their back, it seems to be their weakness!"

    Then, she continued to destroy the patch of crystal.

    "Huh? Sure!"

    Elaine backflips to dodge a swinging fist, before drawing her rapier arm back as far as it could go. Her legs tensed, preparing to spring forth.

    If I want to take advantage, I better blitz one down in a single strike. Ah, that reminds me, I have that technique.

    The rapier's blade took on a soft glow, silvery feathers falling around the girl as her blade pointed towards the larger humanoid. She sprung forth once again.

    "Break through, holy charging lance! Knight's---"

    A small white circle appeared on the humanoid's chest, moving a bit to the left, where most humans' heart would be. Some sort of target, perhaps.

    "---Blitz!"

    The humanoid shuddered, then fell back motionlessly, a massive cavity where the chest should have been. But, just as Elaine was standing up to regain her stance---

    *CLANG!*

    She was smashed flying into the wall, sending up clouds of dust, as the remaining humanoid stood, it's left hand the size of a small cabinet.

    Shocked by the sound of crashing, Venefica turned to look and found Elaine knocked back onto the wall. Once she made sure that the limbless being is thoroughly down, she found her way to the back of the creature that is still focused on Elaine.

    Making sure that it had not noticed her approaching, she hurriedly chanted an incantation, causing a ball of fire to appear. At that instant, the creature stopped in place, noticing her presence. But before it had the chance to turn, the ball of fire landed right at the patch of crystals on its back, causing the creature to fall and trash around.

    Although Venefica wanted to first thoroughly finish the creature first, she decided to instead rush towards Elaine, hurriedly casting water magic to do some first aid treatment.

    "How are you feeling?"

    "Not the best, but---Ugh!---I'm still alive and kicking. Managed to parry the blow at the last second, so the actual strike didn't really hit me, but the impact smashed me into the wall...Geh, it's strong, but Haruna's warhammer was scarier."

    Gripping the wall as support, Elaine slowly got back on her feet, using the rapier as a walking stick. She watched as the last foe stopped struggling.

    "Gotta...catch my breath..."

    Seeing that she was still able to joke around, Venefica sighed in relief.

    "While you rest, I will tell you about my findings." Saying that, Venefica looked around and finally found a piece of mineral that seemed to have broken off from one of the creatures.

    Holding it out for Elaine to look, Venefica continued, "I believe this is the source of our acid problem."

    "The crystals are their...power source, maybe? Like our hearts."

    Elaine slowly walked over to take a closer look.

    "It stinks...of something unnatural. Regardless of what made this, it was probably nothing holy. Just staring at it gives me the goosebumps."

    Elaine furrowed her brows.

    "Still, how should we get rid of it? Collapse the laboratory?"

    At her words, Venefica tilted her head.

    "That might cause the containment magic to disappear, which would allow the acid rain to disperse. But from what I could find, the mineral itself is a solid form of the cause of the acid rain. If you burn or put it under pressure, it would turn gaseous, so doing either would not be of help. So if you would like to be sure, we would need to bring away all of this mineral.”

    "All of it?"

    Elaine gives the room a cursory inspection. The three humanoid foes all had these crystals on their backs, but she doubted that they were the only pieces to be found.

    "I have a lot of pouches on me, so I could carry a good bit...But I suspect there might be more than the pieces we see here. Let's snoop around for a bit."

    Saying thus, Elaine starts searching through the lab.

    "I am able to carry some, maybe. At least we should bring enough as proof to the guild."

    Venefica then also searched around the lab.

    Entering one of the rooms, Venefica soon realized that the room seemed much more organized. It even held several furniture which seemed to indicate it was a room of residence or something of the sort.

    Searching around, she failed to find any sign of the poisonous mineral. But just as she was about to leave, something caught her eye. It was a square chest of the sort, around the size of her waist. Its lock and container long eroded by time. With some force, she managed to break the lock and reveal the content inside.

    What she found caused her to blink in pleasant surprise.

    Though not exactly the same as the one she knew, it was similar to the set of alchemical equipment she had seen before. After looking over them carefully, she realized that the equipment seemed much more complete than the ones she had seen before, only that it showed a faint sign of age which the chest seemed to be responsible of.

    After several moments, Venefica decided to bring the chest with her, seeing that there is no other easier way to bring the alchemical set with her. Once she reached that decision, she once again stored the alchemical set inside and continued to search around for the weird minerals with the chest in tow.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Still rummaging through the countertops, Elaine finds precious little information, besides the owner's diary which she immediately tossed away; the handwriting was that poor.

    So she got over and started examining the creatures instead. Breaking off the crystals that remained and storing them into her pouch, Elaine noted the uncanny similarity between humans and those things. From afar, they might even have passed off as regular humans.

    "Wonder what sort of twisted soul made these..."

    Continuing her search, Elaine soon found another interesting item; a simple necklace with a crystal that was shaped like a teardrop. Or rather, the crystal seemed like it could be entirely removed from the socket.

    "Hmm?"

    Some kind of unknown power was radiating off the necklace.

    "Well, I'll bother about it later."

    Saying thus, she stuffed the necklace onto another pocket, and continued her search.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Once she finished gathering as much of the mineral as she could carry, Venefica met up with Elaine.

    "What shall we do now?”

    "I guess we'll have to seal off access to this place somehow. Can you bring down the ceiling with Earth Magic?"

    "I do not think so, this cavern is far too large. Should I take my time to do it, it might still cause us to be stuck in a cave-in." Said Venefica, looking at the cave ceiling.

    "Instead, I could apply some water magic into the earth and later use dark magic to cause them to freeze. It should cause the earth to become weaker.”

    "Wait, you know Ice Magic?"

    Elaine thought of a good idea.

    "Then, we can probably hurry up that process even more. We just have to be at the entrance of this cave, so that I can blast the place down without worrying about getting us caught in the collapse."

    Turning around, she pointed at the hole she had made in the wall.

    "I think that's a good place to begin with, if you may?"

    Nodding her head, Venefica started to create water and seep them into the ceilings of the cavern before finally freezing them with ice magic. Though she has a lot of mana in her reservoir, she could feel herself becoming increasingly exhausted. By the time she finished applying water on the whole cavern ceiling and freezing them, she had long tired herself out.

    "That... should be enough..."

    "Woah, here, lean on me for a bit. You don't look too good."

    Elaine offers her own shoulder, pushing the door open in the meantime. After this would be her turn to do the heavy lifting, but they easily had enough time to let her partner take a rest first.

    "...Understood, excuse my imposing then..."

    Venefica then leaned her body on Elaine. With her help, they finally left the cavern wherein Venefica took a rest under the shade of a nearby tree.

    Elaine faced the cavern mouth, and reckoned that it was about time. She cupped her hands over both of her ears, and did her thing. Namely, yelling.

    "Alright, you might wanna block your ears for a bit...Now."

    Taking a huuuge breath, Elaine filled her lungs with about as much air as she could, before expelling all of it in a single blast.

    "SHATTER!"

    The boom of pure, destructive sound echoed into the cavern, and started shattering the ice that had seeped into the earthen walls, and not long after, the natural thing happened, when dozens of walls weakened simultaneously.

    *BOOOM*

    The girl turned around, after having beheld the handicraft; the mouth of the cavern was completely blocked off.

    "Done! Phew. That was a good one."

    Taking in the sight before her, Venefica felt slightly speechless. But in the end, she simply sighed.

    "Now that we are done, we should report to the village before returning to the guild."

    "Yep! Let's get back, I'm dying for a good sandwich~"
    @Quaesitor @FuRen
     
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  5. Quaesitor

    Quaesitor [Scholar]

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    Looking over the reward, Garret nods. "Good, it seems like you solved the problem. I don't think there will be political repercussions with the laboratory having been abandoned. But, concerning the necklace, I would be careful. It is not uncommon for such found objects to be cursed."

    With that out of the way, he moves on to the reward part. "Now, here is your reward. 16 Large Copper coins in total, and 4 guild points for each of you."
     
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  6. AliceShiki

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

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    Oh gods... Couldn't you have just... I dunno, left them to their fates? You do realize the town is undergoing reconstruction right now, don't you? Not really the best moment to find room for a whooping 600 people...

    And I thank you for the gift, but I'm not as easy to conquer as Ayumi-chan, so you can keep it and give it instead to... I dunno, Selvia-san? Elaine-san? You should be a bit more faithful, you know?

    We'll give the necklace to someone that can analyze it, maybe we'll get something out of that.

    And good job out there I suppose, would be nice if this was the end of those goblin outbreaks, the reward will be 20 Large Copper Coins and 8 Guild Points~

    Take care now, remember that women don't like to receive broken tools as gifts~

    ((Well, I think the archives wouldn't be publicly available (since well, private stuff about the requesters might be disclosed like that), but whatever! xD))
     
  7. A5G_Reaper

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

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    ((Surely there's short summaries?))
     
  8. A5G_Reaper

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

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    "Actually it's for analysis, who knows if the lyre is what caused the goblinfication. But if you really want a gift I'll wrap some souvenir next time, no need to go so roundabout with it." The gourd pocketed his reward. "Well, until next time!"
     
  9. michael.kx5

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

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    After leaving the guild and asking around a bit I found Soren near the old destroyed church in the temporary dorms for the priests.
    When I asked in a loud voice "Who is Soren?" a 2.30 meters tall giant approached me while wearing a spikey armor that honestly looks like it came out of a blacksmith's nightmare.
    "It is I, what is it, oh small one who only looks like a child?" (Soren)

    "Oh, You can tell? impressive. Not many have sensed my real age at our first meeting.
    I am Rei, an E rank adventurer from the guild. I accepted your request.
    I am a martial artist so I am quite confident in my strength, skills, and stamina. I am sure I can satisfy your needs" (Me)
    An awkward silence hanged in the air as all the priests in the area looked at Soren with cold eyes.
    What? Did I say something wrong?

    "......" (Soren)
    "Soren you......" (Priest A)
    "WRONG! She meant a light spar! I sent a request for a sparring partner! Right?! Right?!" (Soren)
    "Huh? Of course, why else do you think I would mention being a martial artist?" (Me)
    .......
    ...
    """""Sorry for doubting you Soren!!!"""" (Priests)
    "It's fine, there was no helping it with the way she was wording it...... hey Rei, has anyone ever told you you're dangerous when you speak?" (Soren)
    "No? Only when I talk with my fists" (Me)
    "Hahahaha, I like ya! How about you join our church after this?" (Soren)
    "No thanks, I like being a free bird" (Me)
    "I see...... can't argue with that one. Well, Let's get to it shall we? There is an open space behind the dorms where we can fight. Do you want any weapons or armor? blunt ones of course" (Soren)
    "No need, I always go bare-handed. I have my own protective equipment right here" (Me)
    "I see.......well then, you guys break time is over. Get back to construction!" (Soren)
    """""""Yes, head priest!"""""" (Priests)
    "Good answer. Well then, lets go" (Soren)

    At the open practice field behind the dorms, Soren was taking off his spiky armor.
    He said it would be somewhat unfair to use it in a spar against an unarmed opponent.
    Certainly, If not careful I might end up with more holes in my body than a yellow cheese.

    "I will yield the first strike to you" (Soren)
    "Very well, here I come" (Me)
    I can't underestimate him.
    I must go at him with everything I got.
    That's what my instincts tell me.

    I crouched on the ground while activating the lightning enhancement art and sprang to action like a loaded crossbow.
    Using the momentum of my charge I made a hand-knife and aimed at Soren's head.
    The strike was blocked by the huge sword as big as himself he easily wielded with one arm.
    "Not bad, but the power is lacking" (Soren)
    Not good!
    I barely dodged a slash attack that came from above at a speed almost comparable to my own.
    Soren began to swing his sword methodically and powerfully while still making sure not to overextend his wind ups.
    I was faster so I could keep but he was slowly and gradually shaving away at my stamina just by forcing me to dodge these, not letting me take my distance or set my pace.

    I need to change the flow.
    But how?
    the Lightning doesn't pack enough power, but the flames aren't fast enough to dodge his counter-attack.
    Wait... let's try that!
    I kicked Soren's weapon when it came flying towards me.
    The timing was extremely hard to grasp but I did it.
    This allowed me to take an adequate amount of distance from Soren.
    The head priest narrowed his eyes and kept his distance, wary of my next move.
    Good.
    I started using an old footwork-technique I learned from some traveling rogues.
    Mixed with my current speed and...voila!
    Soren face was dyed with suprise.
    After all, he was facing around a dozen afterimages of me all running at him from different directions.
    Using Soren's confusion I managed to get into his bosom and switched out to the flame enhancement at the last second while keeping the momentum from the charge.
    The strike rang across the field and beyond it, as a palm-shaped imprint was left in Soren's armor as he was pushed back a few meters.
    "Well done!" (Soren)
    Soren smiled as he brandished his weapon.
    "Now it's my turn, my body is finally all warmed up and feeling great!"
    Oh...
    Oh no...
    OH SHIT!!!
    I didn't have the time to dodge so I raised my arm guards and planted my feet to try to parry the coming strike while gitting my teeth.
    "GAH" (Me)
    I flew into the air and tumbled around on the ground for almost 16 meters.
    Not good, I can't lift a muscle.
    I force myself to my feet to find Soren towering over me.
    "Not bad for someone your size, but you focused so much on offense and mobility your defense is almost paper. I suggest you get or learn something to cover that"
    And with that, he picked me up like a sack of potatoes and carried me to the temple of Ophelia.
    I was too tired and aching to protest about being carried like a sack.
    - New technique - afterimage clones
    - Beaten by Soren, but it was a good warm-up for him.
    - Gained an idea for a new skill, will be cultivated at a later date.
    @Naraku
     
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  10. Naraku

    Naraku 『』『』『』

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    "Are you sure you aren't doing it on purpose? Or perhaps, you are dense, super dense or irredeemably dense?", Gaap seriously asked after reading the report, genuinely, he had troubles believing that Rei would be unaware of what her wording was provoking.

    After s sigh, he gave to her the rewards for accomplishing the quest.
    "Anyway, the rewards, good job getting beaten, here are 7 LCC and 4 Guild Points."
     
  11. A5G_Reaper

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

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    The gourd was a bit away when he saw a giant that must be Soren carrying a small-ish blue victim toward the healing temple. Figured that the head priest would return after a while, he waited where the constructions were still ongoing. Seems that the voluntary beatings light exercise was some sort of entertainment for the construction workers, seeing how they cheered at the arrival of another victim challenger. Some seemed to recognize him, from the festival. The gourd waved as he waited for Soren to return.

    "Aha! If it's not Jack! Got used to the new sword yet?"

    "Surely you jest, no human can feasibly lift that." The gourd replied. "Looking for exercise?"

    "Indeed! I've got some good warmup so let's go straight into it!"

    The gourd followed to the open ground nearby, where racks of blunted weapons awaited. No sense wrecking his own, so he picked a longsword and a reinforced buckler off the list.

    "My armor would suffice, yes?"

    "Sure! I'll just get changed."

    *****

    "Since you're quite hardy I'm not going too easy on you!"

    "No, please do-"

    The gourd lightly stepped back from a decapitating swing, sending some light probe of his own that were indiscriminately swatted away. Soren wasn't going murderkill right away like he did on the tournament and he wield a standard zweihandler now but his blows were pulverizing and he swung like the thing doesn't weight anything. Well, from how he carried the prize from design contest, that wasn't much of a surprise.

    Nevertheless, it still mean there's zero window to dodge and close in. The priest was strong enough to forcefully reverse a swing with sheer strength alone.

    The gourd himself was taking it in stride, lightly stepping around without really comitting on attack. Moving in that spiky steel fortress can't be untaxing, outlasting the guy was a possibility...

    "Ha! Let's step this up!"

    Soren dashed forward after the announcement but the gourd was ready. He stepped back just out of the first swing's reach, legs ready to sprung, and in the same motion he lightly heaved the buckler to the priest's face in order to obscure himself from sight. Immediately he pounced forward, right in range as he thrust his longsword into Soren's eye slit just as the priest slapped the buckler aside.

    Well, as if that'd work. Soren simply tilted his head forward, the sword scraping the helmet instead of going through his skull. Then the gourd was sent flying with a punch for his trouble - the sheer force of the nonchalant blow greatly exceeded Rei's earlier.

    He rolled several times before stopping, wheezing and coughing his lungs out as the priest laughed heartily.

    "Yeah, I think you pulped my lungs." He staggered to his feet, still wheezing.

    "You can still speak so you're fine! That last strike was quite insidious, it had me in a pinch!" Soren modestly laughed it off, as if seeing and reacting to the sword when it's less than a foot away from his obscured sight was an easy feat. "Need a hand getting to the healers?"

    "I'll manage, thank you very much..." the gourd pointed at the buckler and zweihandler. "...those are ruined though."

    An irreparable bend cut through half of the reinforced buckler where the zweihandler struck, in which the blade also had a chip and considerable crack where it impacted. The gourd shook his head, starting to understand why Soren use that massive sword previously - normal weapons wouldn't survive his own strength.
    -Got beaten up, as expected.
    -Gourd could be surprisingly nimble if he wanted to.
    @AliceShiki
     
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  12. Daisydacrazy

    Daisydacrazy !!

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    Deanna hands the report paper to @AliceShiki
    Note: Never writing in past tense again. Hurted my brain and had to fix so many mistakes that I'm pretty sure there are still some.
    Also, Deanna didn't talk at all. Didn't want to write dialogue.
    Deanna looked at the sky, it was morning so she headed to a bookstore to buy a couple of books on snakes. Like recognizing poisonous ones, or the best ways to kill them, functions for snakes, and random things like that. After she bought the books, she heads back to the inn and reads them till lunch where she went out to buy some food and supplies for her quest. She continued to read after she finished her errands, she finishes the books and head off to sleep early.

    The next day, Deanna woke up early and headed out before dawn. She stopped at the river for a rest before she continued on her journey. By nightfall, she reached Lakeside Village. Deanna stayed for the night and let the innkeeper take care of the horse.

    Early morning the next day, Deanna went into the forest southwest of the village and started looking for the house. By Lunchtime, Deanna found a pond with a house to the side. She could see a couple of snakes dead by the house or some caught in traps. Her elf hearing could hear slight slithers around the house from the snakes around.

    As she walked closer toward the house, she heard a click sound. Deanna jumped back just in time as a dozen arrows fly to where she was at lightning speed. She used [Agility] and jumped into the trees.

    As she jumped from tree to tree, Deanna made her way towards the house and enters through the chimney to avoid activating any more traps. Not hearing anyone in the house, Deanna took out her dried meat and ate her lunch.

    After lunch, Deanna looked around at the well made house and spots a note on a table. It read:

    Dear Adventurer,
    Get rid of those snakes for me, thanks.

    She climbed back up the chimney, Deanna looked around to find the tallest tree. After Deanna reached it, she used [Multi Sense] and observed the house. Deanna heard the often slithers of the snakes and saw quite an abundant amount of them around. She saw some that got in and out of the pond, some that got near the house and set off traps, or some that attacked the small creatures around looking for food.

    She turned off [Multi Sense], Deanna realized that the black and brown spotted snakes, all looked the same. Deanna remembered something and reached into her pouch at her side, took out a book that she had brought with her and started to flip through the pages till she finally reached the page. It read:

    “..., some snakes have eggs that stay in their bodies until the eggs hatch and then the babies are born. Snakes can have anywhere from one to 150 baby snakes at a time.”

    She thought on the possibility of it being a snake nest, Deanna draws her bow decides to kill off all the snakes she could see, as there could be more later. After, Deanna picked up all the arrows she shot, she washed them to re-use them in the future.

    Deana climbed back up to the tree, used her [Multi Sense] and tried to sense where the snakes had come from. Deanna waited for forty-five minutes, her head snapped to the direction of the pond and she saw a snake slither from the water and into the grass.

    Deanna realized that the snakes could be from the pond, Deanna sighed as she would have to swim and hold her breath to get rid of the rest of the snakes. Deanna also realized that she wouldn’t be able to use her bow, she put back her bow onto her back and took out her dagger and descended down from the tree.

    Deanna took a deep breath and jumped into the water. She opened her eyes and with her elf vision, was able to see clearly in the water. She looked around and for a while before she swam back up to the surface. Deanna once again went back into the water and looked around.

    Deanna saw no other snakes in the water and decided to swim towards another part of the pond. As she reached closer, Deanna realized that it’s an underwater cave. She swam up for air and as she took a deep breath of air, she sensed the presence of other creatures around.

    Deanna looked around the dark cave. She used her [Multi Sense] again and saw much more clearly. She turned to the direction of the presence she felt. When she saw the what it was, Deanna froze for a second.

    A couple meter away, Deanna saw a sleeping, fat meter long, bright green snake. There were of course smaller black and brown spotted snakes around the bright green one. Deanna remembered about how most bright colored snakes were poisonous, and puts her dagger back and decides to use a bow instead as she wouldn’t be shooting in water.

    Deanna used [Sleath] to avoid being found. She found a spot to hide and started to snip at the black and brown spotted snakes as they would interfere when she would be trying to kill the giant snake. Although Deanna missed a couple of times, she eventually killed all of the smaller snakes inside the cave.

    After she killed all the snakes, Deanna drew her bow and shot at the snake. However, the arrow hadn’t been able to pierce the skin of the bright green snake. Instead, it startled the snake up and it started to hiss, smelling the air for what had disturbed it from her sleep. Not noticing Deanna (as Deanna still had her [Sleath] on), the snake had noticed that her babies were lying on the ground dead. The snake slithered and hid in a corner waiting for deanna to come.

    However, Deanna didn’t come. Deanna had been hit with a dilemma. She had noticed that when she shot her arrow, it wasn’t able to pierce through the snake’s skin. She didn’t know how she was going to kill the snake.

    Deanna took out her book on snakes and skimmed through the pages, as she looked for ways to kill that snake. After a while, Deanna finally found the information she was looking for.

    The snake was starting to get impatient after waiting for deanna but to no avail.

    Deanna came out from her hiding spot and turned of her [Sleath]. As the snake wasn’t able to sense Deanna before, sensed Deanna coming closer. It shrinks back and waited for Deanna to approach.

    Deanna calculated the distance the snake would be able to attack from carefully walked closer till she was in reach of the snake.

    The meter long snake jumped from her small hiding spot, opened her mouth with her fangs out and attacked Deanna. Just as the snake’s mouth was about to reach Deanna, Deanna slightly jumped back out of the snake’s reach and stabbed an arrow inside the snake’s mouth. The giant snake instantly died.

    Deanna took the arrow out and used her dagger to start skinning the snake for it’s scales. She contained the scales in a jar and placed it into her pouch. After that, Deanna collected the black and brown spotted snakes. She threw the dead snakes onto a bag and tried it up. Then, she jumped back into the water with the snakes in the bag and swam out.

    Deanna collected all the dead snakes from outside the forest. She started skinning each snake and separated their skin from meat. She recalled when she and her father were hunting when she was young. And he taught her how to hunt and skin animals. Coming back to the present, Deanna stored the two separately and counted the skins and weighed the meat.

    She counted 102 snake skins and 103 pond of snake meat. Separating around 30 pounds of snake meat, Deanna decided to give this to the client. She headed back to his house with the 30 pounds wrapped in cloth and looked around (rummaged) for some ink.

    After finding ink, Deanna wrote on the previous piece of paper left by the client, saying:

    Got rid of the snakes. Here is some snake meat.

    Through several trips, Deanna then left and carried the meat and skin back to the Lakeside village inn. After several trips, she finished everything and ate a nice meal and collapsed on the bed.

    The next day, Deanna went out to sell and trade the skins and meat as she didn’t want them. After some trading with some villagers, Deanna now has a lot of sweets, 15 small copper coins, and a couple pieces of jewelry.

    After Deanna got rid of all the skins and meat, Deanna headed back to the Nagrand.
    Found a snake nest and got rid of it
    Gained some pretty strong scales, has an idea on what to do with them.
    Gained a couple pieces of jewelry, lots of sweets and a couple copper coins
    leveled up Multi Sense
    Deanna secretly hopes to never see any snakes again
     
  13. Zero300

    Zero300 『Mask Maker』『Kamen Rider Khaos』『Demon Immortal』

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    Task: Rat Infestation [Available]
    Requester: Oroboros, Cheese Merchant
    Quest rank: E-rank
    Rewards: 9 Large Copper Coins.
    Description: Cheese, for everyone! That's my business motto, sell cheese, for anyone and everyone!
    Maaaaaaaybe it wasn't a good idea to sell it to a ratgirl that came here recently though... A number of giant rats have been found trying to get inside my storeroom... Somehow I was able to stop them from getting inside, which saved me from going bankrupt, but I'm seriously worried, please get rid of those rats for me.
    * The guild looked over this issue on its own due to the involvement of one of their employees with the matter, and apparently the giant rats are not native to Nagrand, rather, they seem to attack the native rats on sight. There might be more to this issue than just a bunch of rats coming through.

    Once the rat infestation quest was approved, Zinc ventured towards Oroboros’s storeroom located south of Nagrand. As a precaution, Zinc brought Arsenic with him in case there’s a need to do massive area effect damage. The doctor mused over the issue as he walked towards Oroboros’s storeroom. From what he had gathered from the guild, the rats weren’t native but instead, they were species from another region. Given that the rats came soon after Oroboros sold some cheese to a ratgirl, the doctor reasoned that the rats were lured with malicious intent.

    Once Zinc arrived at the storeroom entrance, he got straight to work. He had Arsenic start off on applying a layer of poisonous, heavy gas around the perimeter of the storeroom. The gas was low enough not to affect others, but enough to affect the giant rats that crawl so close to the floors. Since Zinc believed that the rats were lured through some sort of sensory effects, he decided to open his senses and amplify them by double. And so, he waited. Soon, night fell and Zinc was almost about to doze off when his heightened ears picked up the sounds of a sharp melody. The tune played on for a while before thunderous footsteps overwhelmed the sound.

    “I knew it! Someone is definitely luring them here. My money is on that ratgirl.” Zinc murmured under his breath as he reached for his Amputaion Knife. It was time for a massacre.

    Soon, the giant rats came. Zinc nearly cursed out loud when he saw the size of those rats. They were larger than some of the stray cats and dogs he saw while making his way to the storeroom. Where are they coming from? How do they avoid detection from other people? As the first few waves of giant rats collapsed due to the poisonous gas, the upcoming waves managed to avoid the gas by climbing over the corpses of their fellow companions.

    Zinc rushed out and met the giant rats with wide swings of his knife, cleaving many in half. There were just too many and after a couple of minutes of fight, Zinc could feel his arms tire and his strength seeping out. The doctor drank a Rejuvenation tonic to get rid of some of his fatigue and kept going. However, the tonic wasn’t everlasting as he began to feel tired again after a few more waves of giant rats. This wasn’t going anywhere. Zinc needed to take care of the main perpetrator involved – the one that lured the rats here in the first place.

    As centipedes were sensitive to sounds, Zinc decided to use Arsenic’s help in finding the main perpetrator. The centipede crawled about as he raised his head up to feel the sound vibrations within the air. After surveying for a couple of minutes, Arsenic was able to determine a potential location and immediately scurried after it. The doctor gripped his Amputation Knife nervously as he followed Arsenic. He made sure to leave Cerium behind to disorient any giant rat that came close to the storeroom as well as having his pet wolf – Silver – deal with any that Cerium missed. Soon, Zinc and Arsenic arrived near the southern gates.

    “It’s here…even I can hear it.” Zinc muttered as he distinctively heard the sounds of the strange tune. “Arsenic, where’s that sound coming from?”

    Over there! There’s a gap in the wall! Arsenic’s voice echoed inside the doctor’s head.

    Zinc looked over and noticed a hole in the wall. It was big enough let through a couple of giant rats at a time. The doctor stalked up to the hole and laid eyes on a ratgirl. The ratgirl was blowing through a bone flute. When she saw the dwelf walking up to her, she immediately turned tail and ran.

    “Not so fast!” Zinc roared as he reached into his utility belt and pulled out a medium-sized needle. “Knocking!”

    The doctor hurled the needle towards the ratgirl, piercing her skin and paralyzing her spinal nerves. The ratgirl screamed as she felt the strength leave her arms and legs. She tried to get up but it was no use. Zinc had already arrived by where she fell. Zinc snatched the bone flute out of the ratgirl’s hands and examined it closely.

    “Seems interesting.”

    “Give it back! It’s mine!” The ratgirl retorted as she glared at the doctor with hatred in her eyes.

    “Heh, not anymore. It’s mine now.” Zinc smiled and shook a finger at the ratgirl.

    As the ratgirl began to cry, the doctor switched tactics and asked. “How about this…you tell me why you sent giant rats to raid Oroboros’s storeroom and I’ll give this back to you.”

    “R-Really?” The ratgirl looked up hopefully.

    “Sure. Tell me what I need to know and I’ll give this back.”

    “Okay.”

    “First off, why are you attacking Oroboros’s storeroom?”

    “Because we’re hungry.”

    “We? You and the giant rats?”

    “Not just the giant rats, there’s my clan – the Ratata Clan – as well. Our once rich plains have been plagued with an intense, year-long heat that dried up everything. Even after raining, the water would evaporate quickly. We don’t know what has caused it.”

    Zinc mused over the new information and remarked. “So, without water, food won’t grow and without food, you resort to stealing?”

    “Y-Yes.” The ratgirl bowed her head in shame.

    “What’s your name?”

    “M-My name? It’s Ra’Talia of the Ra Branch.”

    “Listen Ra’Talia. Call off your rat friends and I’ll find a way to help your clan.”

    “Y-You really mean it? C-Can I r-really trust you?”

    “Definitely. Believe in me.”

    “O-Okay. I believe in you.”

    Zinc treated Ra’Talia’s paralysis and handed the bone flute to her who then dismissed the giant rats. As the giant rats left Nagrand, Ra’Talia bid Zinc farewell with newfound hope in her eyes before following her friends out of the town. With that settled, the doctor met with Oroboros and told him that the giant rats problem had been solved and that the cheese merchant won’t need to worry about giant rats anymore…as for regular rats…well, that’s not his problem.
    • Ra'Talia - first name Talia, surname Ra. Ra'Talia comes from the Ra Branch of the Ratata Clan.
    • The clan lives in a grassland area plagued with a year-long heat that dried up everything. From Ra'Talia's tone, it doesn't seem to be heat from the sun.
    • The Ratata Clan, as well as the other creatures living in the plains, cannot survive another month. They need help desperately.
    • Those of Ra Branch are experts in manipulating giant rats via sounds and tunes.
    @AliceShiki
     
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  14. Haxagen

    Haxagen Fallen's|Addicted to Gacha

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    "The old man sure didn't pull his punches..."

    Elaine smiled sourly as she handed over her report, still cradling her stomach.
    The armoured priest looked on with visible concern.

    “You’re actually only 17 years old.”

    “That I am, yeah.”

    “...You sure you want to do this? I know it’s only a light spar, but we’re using blunt weapons and wearing armour for a reason.”

    “Yeah, I don’t see a problem.”

    “...Well, I’m still a priest after all, so I should be able to cure any injuries that you get.”

    “Isn’t it a bit too early in the morning to declare that I’m going to get wounded? Who knows, maybe you’ll have to use some of that holy magic on yourself!”

    Soren burst out laughing, brandishing his two-handed greatsword as the sunlight glinted off his spiky armour.

    “Very well, lass, I’ll see it for myself. If I have to use magic on myself after this, then colour me impressed. I hope you’re not biting off more than you can chew, though!”

    “You’ll see!”

    Elaine drew the weapon she’d picked off the rack, a small piece of sharpened stick.

    “Oh, your favourite weapon is the rapier? Now, that might be a tad bit troublesome.”

    “Here I go.”

    The girl crouched until she was practically on all fours, before sprinting forth like a rushing river.

    “Over!”

    A rapier strike came from overhead, which bounced off the huge blade.

    “Under!”

    The strike from below was repelled by the armour.

    “Across!”

    The rapier swiped horizontally, jabbing towards the chestplate---Not. As the priest moved his greatsword to block it, he realised that the girl had managed to slide behind him, and was aiming at his back.

    *CLANG!*

    The thin blade met with the huge one, and the former subsequently shattered. Soren didn’t let up, following the movement through with a downward slash.

    “Woah!”

    Backflipping, Elaine knocked over the weapons rack. Then, they went back to a staring match, seeing who made the next move. The priest laughed, rubbing the newly created scratches on his armour.

    “Not coming?”

    “Give me a moment to get another one, since the previous broke...Okay, got it. Here I go.”

    Once again, the girl sprung forward, weaving around the priest as she unleashed a barrage of slices, thrusts and strikes, all of which were either repelled by the blade or failed to pierce the armour. Then, as Soren shifted his footing to keep her in his vision, he accidentally stepped on a piece of loosened ground which he had cracked earlier, losing his footing. It didn’t go unnoticed to the young girl.

    “An opening...Not!”

    As the priest righted himself, massive greatsword cleaving towards her, she jammed the rapier into the ground, and vaulted herself into the air, causing the diagonal downward slash to miss her by a few centimetres.

    She didn’t deal any damage, but from that position, she leveraged herself off the flat of the blade, kicking backwards and creating some more distance between them. The priest repositioned himself, then smiled.

    “Not bad. You used my own opening against me. What gave it away?”

    “Nothing, actually. I just had an intuition that it would be dangerous to press the attack.”

    “And your instincts were right, I suppose. Not bad, you’ve actually let me work up quite a bit of sweat. I’m rather impressed.”

    “Hahaha...Now if only that last strike actually hurt you, but I doubt so.”

    “Well, it doesn’t stop you from being dangerous if I get careless, lass. Up for more?”

    “Just one more bout, maybe. I need to find another rapier, since this one’s gone from all that...Jeez. Iron’s not a good material for piercing weapons which are also really thin.”

    Walking over to the weapon rack AGAIN, Elaine picked up her third rapier.

    “Alright...Here goes nothing.”

    She took off, heading towards the readied priest with her Knight’s Blitz activated. Of course, she wasn’t going to charge AT the spiked armour. That would be suicide.

    “EAT THIS!”

    As she yelled out, the girl jammed her rapier into the ground just as she charged past the priest, before forcefully swinging herself backwards, rushing towards the unguarded back. She had no idea if it was going to work, but all she needed was a second…

    Then the priest turned around, the greatsword arcing towards her.

    Crap!

    At the last second, Soren turned the sword, and the flat blade smashed through the ‘rapier’ and smacked her right in the stomach, sending her flying across the practice grounds.

    “Ooooooooooow! Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow---OUCH!”

    Eventually, she came to a stop, groaning from her busted ribs.

    “Ouch…”

    The priest towered over her, grinning as he extended a hand to help her up.

    “That was quite the fun match! Especially that last attack, I did have to use some magic to deal with it, so colour me impressed.”
    “Still, lass, seeing you fight makes me nostalgic for some reason.”

    “Nostalgic?”

    “Aye, something about the way you fight reminds me of the past...Oh, I know why now. This style of swordplay, it’s the Kaslana House’s Assault Rush, but why would you know how to ...Ah.”

    “Eh?”

    “So you are...I see. Baroness Kaslana did a very good job, as usual. I had my suspicions, but it seems like I was right.”

    “Uhm...uh...actually…”

    “Oh, don’t worry. I won’t tell. But still, you are the youngest of the Kaslana House, aren’t you?”

    “...Well, that’s true. So, I hope I lived up to the expectations behind that name?”

    “Hahahaha! You’re not bad for someone your age. Could do better, but again, that’s just practice you’re lacking. You’ve got the foundations down quite well, young lady.”

    There was a few more seconds of silence.

    “You are quite similar to your parents, I have to say. The wanderlust in your eyes reminds me of them.”

    “You knew my parents?”

    “A brief stint in Raven Rock during my younger days, I guess. Your father was a wild young lad back then, always up to some kind of antics, but he was a good man. I was quite proud to have been invited to his wedding some years afterwards.”

    “Did you attend?”

    “Sadly, no. We had to deal with an outbreak, and as a result I couldn’t quite find the time, to my regret...Then, Baroness Kaslana wrote a letter, telling me to be wary about communicating with them openly, so we’ve not really talked for quite a long while. And then the news spread that they had lost their youngest in an accident...I never quite believed it. Your parents were too careful to allow harm of any sort to befall their children.”

    More silence.

    “Ah, I apologise for rambling. That’s the problem of old age, I tend to go on and on...Are you alright? I’ve given you a bit of healing magic, but bones tend to take a while to mend.”

    “Yeah, I think I’ve already recovered from the worst of my injuries. I should get going now, but, uhhh…”

    “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll help you keep this secret of yours. For some reason, whenever I’m near a member of the Kaslana House, it never feels like I’m talking to a noble. A family of oddballs, not that I’m in the position to talk, really. Nevertheless, see you around, lass!”
    @AliceShiki
     
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  15. MrAconter

    MrAconter Well-Known Member

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    Aconter came back to the Guild and said to the receptionists: "Well that turned out betten then i thought, i even made some new friends out there"
    He handed the report towards the receptionists.

    After accepting the Quest in the Guild Aconter headed out, it was already late but the darkness never was a hindrance to him he embraced the cold air and the shadow of the trees nearby.

    He went south in the direction of the Lakeside Village and followed the stream heading west.
    On the way there were some places that were just inviting passerby to rest some big old trees with flowers growing at its side, or a small grotto with a stream running down into like a small waterfall, as he passed by all these places and rested at some he made his way further west until he reached the forst where he was headed to.

    On his way there he made some plans on what to do he had several options to chose from, first was the thing the receptionists said more in jest that anything but would be possible to just beat them in their own game and call it a days work or he could put down some challenges to see up to where they could follow and the one who lasted the longest would be "named" the best between the two.
    He also could do both first see if they were capable or not and then beat them after his challenges proved to be no challenge at all.
    He had to smile at the thought what would happen if they ended in beating himself in his own game.
    There had been many times where hos Arrow found his mark and the target never got to see his face in the dark.
    No he could not chose something like that they were just kids in his Eyes not Assassins like he himself he could not ask them to end a life on a whim like he himself had to do on his work.

    He chose to just ramp up the Challenges after he meet them and decide it for them who was better.

    While in thought he reached the village entrance.
    It has been a long time since he was in an Elven Village, he greeted a passerby and asked the way to the Elf called "Sarge"
    He headed for his Sarge´s home and already saw what he mentioned in the Quest that it got out of hand there were targets all over the place and many arrows that had not found their mark.

    He knocked on the door and waited.

    A tall elf opened the door and greeted him: "What can i do for you stranger ?"
    Aconter smiled and said: "It seems you are Sarge, nice to meet you my name is Aconter. I saw your Quest at the Guildhall and came here to settle you problem with your Daughters"
    Sarge smile grew and reached for Aconter in a friendly manner: "Finally someone came! I waited far to long."
    He invited Aconter inside and told him of his two Daughters one was called "Miria" she has Silver Hair and "Eirie" got Emerald Hair.

    It was decided that Aconter would live in the Guest room and would stay until they got a decision on who was the better Archer.

    The next day they started with the a basic Shooting range and aimed for who could reach the furthest.
    The first target was 10m away Miria and Eiria laughed at the notion of hitting a target so close but still did what they were asked to to.
    As expected they bot hit it the target, next were 25m but both still smiled and shot it straight away.
    Aconter thought that they at least had some true skill.
    Next up were 50m even though they still smiled they took a look at each other and nodded.
    Miria was first and shot it a couple centimeter off from the middle.
    Eirie laughed and also shot but to her surprise she also got the same result, Miria laughed at her for her folly of laughing before putting up the needed result to laugh.
    Next were 100m and both just stared at the Target asked near simultaneously: "That´s quit far!"
    Aconter laughed out loud and said: "Where has your confidence gone to ? Just 100m is enough to best you ?"
    Both were stupefied at his remark, true they were confident but 100m were still long for them
    Miria went first again took a long breath and aimed, apparently she got serious, she drew the next breath and halted, she let loose the Arrow and hit the target again close to the center. A proud smile creeped out.
    Eirie took the Bow and aimed, she did as Miria before only taking a breath more then her and got once again the same result, a beautiful smile blossomed on her Face and earned her a intent gaze by her sister, Aconter could not help but gaze at her since this smile was just to tempting to any male who got the chance to see it.

    They chose to take a small break and sat down on the ground and talked about the Village, it was called "Tree Top" Village, even though both were "Children" in the sense of Elfes they both were older then most Human would live. Both were around 100 years old and singel.

    The Next target left both of them in shock, it was 200m away!
    Both did not know what to say, sure 100m was possible since they trained all day long bot 200m was not something they did often.
    Aconter said: " This will be the end of the test so far let´s see who will get the Target this time"
    The girls looked like they were hesitating on who should go first.
    The bow was right in front of them, in arms reach and still they felt it was to far to reach.
    Aconter chose to give them something to hold on.
    The girls focus was on the target and the bow alone and ignored him entirely, he drew his Bow took a breath and let lose the arrow!
    The Arrow flew through right between the girls and headed towards the target, the girls gaze was drawn towards the Arrow and they saw the Arrow hitting right in the middle of the 200m target.
    Both gasped and turned around and saw Aconter with his bow.
    Aconter smiled and said: "Girls it´s you turn the target is waiting" he stretched his arm and pointed at the target.

    They were lost, they knew what had happend but could not grasp what it meant to them both looked at each other.
    It was Eirie who took the Bow and aimed, Miria just stood there and was lost for words.
    Eirie took one long breath after another unsure how to proceed.
    Aconter stepped up held her arm higher and straighten her back with the flow of his hand. Both Eirie and Miria blushed at his actions but did not stop him.
    Aconter said: "Aim not right for the center but slightly above it, on this distance the Arrow will curve and drop lower then what you aimed"
    She drew another long breath and let loose the Arrow, it flew and hit the target, it did not manage to reach the center but it at least reached it.
    Eirie was elated at her Success but lost all strength after she thought about how close Aconter was and fell to her knees with a shy blush but a straight smile on her face.

    Miria also took the bow and tried the same as Eirie did, Aconter also went to her and showed her the way to aim for a target this far.
    She let loose the Arrow but did not manage to hit the target. The Smile on her face left her and fell on her knees like Eirie did.

    Aconter still went to both and congratulated to their talent in Archery he decided to name Eirie the better Archer of the two girls.
    He asked them why they even got so obsessed with Archery in the first place that their father even had to call someone in to settle the score for them.
    Both girls Blushed once again and it was Miria who coughed and spoke: "In the past there was another Ranger in the Village who we both liked" she grew redder as she continued "And we tried to settle who would get to date him first by doing this but in the end he left with another Elf, since we had nothing to do and we just couldn't stop it seems"

    Aconter was lost for words and just said: "Next time don´t settle it like that you both are sisters and matters of love can´t be dealt with like that just stop with this, you both are beautiful so just go ahead if you like someone"

    Both blushed and went into the house.

    Aconter collected the Arrows and went to see Sarge, he told him about the dispute and told him that it should end now, he asked if he could stay the night and go back to the Town the next day.
    Sarge hat no reason to refuse and agreed.

    He went to his room and laid down onto his bed...
    As he was about to rest it knocked at his door.
    Aconter said: "Who is there ?"
    From the other side: "It´s me Eirie may i enter ?"
    Aconter was stupefied as to what she would want at this time but still asked her to come in.......
    OOC: Geez what were you thinking ? She only asked him out to train in the night with the Bow :blobowoevil_horns: tell me if i got you naughty boys/girls :blobpeek:
    Eirie came to him and asked if he could spare a day or two for the two and coach them further at Archery.
    Aconter smiled and said: "Sure as long that you don´t overdo it again and trouble your father ill help you out"
    She smiled and went back to her own room.
    The next day he went out to the Training field and only found Eirie.
    Eirie came to him: "Miria had something else to do and wont come back for today"
    He spend the day on teaching her and helped her to find the way to stand and aim for long range shots.
    They spent the day together and as the day came to an end he decided it was time to leave.

    He said Goodbye to Miria and Sarge but Eirie was nowhere to be found.

    As he went outside of the Village entrance Eirie was standing there.
    He Asked: "What are you doing here Eirie ?"
    She blushed and asked: "Will you come back sometimes?"
    He did not know what to say: "Well my Quest ends here today but if you want i will return and coach you again Eirie "

    He went on his way back to the Guild and had to think about the Blushing Beauty who waited for his return one day.
    The dispute was settled and i made friends with the two Daughters in the Village.
    @AliceShiki
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2019
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  16. Razogul

    Razogul [Flag Raiser][Rald's and Carm's Senpai]

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    Task: Yohoho, and a Bottle of Pirate Blood [Taken by @Razogul]
    Requester: Kuro, Sailor Extraordinaire
    Quest rank: D-rank
    Rewards: 26 Large Copper Coins.
    Description: A bunch of dumb pirates decided that it was a great idea to make their base of operations in the rivers Northeast of Doylors... You know what business uses the rivers Northeast of Doylors to make a living...? Yeah, mine.
    Dumb bastards chose the wrong person to piss off. Board my ship in my next travel and prepare for some nice pirate extermination, no quarters mate, the blood god shall have their souls.

    "I'm back," Raz says as he hands the report to the receptionist.

    "Oh? Pirates huh... I have to board the ship for his next travel. Well, I guess it's time to leave."

    Raz readies his equipment and brings it with him outside the tavern. Checking himself over, he makes sure that he brought everything. Satisfied that he's got everything in order, he finally leaves town.

    ***

    "So, you're the quest giver, Kuro?" Raz says to the sailor who had an eyepatch over their eye, scruffy beard, and skinny physique.

    "Yes. I take it you're the adventurer that took my quest?"

    Raz nods and says, "Yes. When do we begin?"

    "Now. Get on my ship and you can take care of them," Kuro says as he keeps rambling on about the dumb pirates and blood for the blood god.

    "Also, you are not to take any prisoners or let them go, KILL them all!" He emphasizes as Raz boards the ship.

    Raz nods and says, "Of course. So, this is your ship."

    The ship was decent sized and looked like it could fit some cargo inside it. The sails looked patched as if it was a makeshift job due to some event. However, none of that mattered to Raz as he got onto the deck.

    "It'll be a while until we can reach it, so do what you like on the deck as I get you there."

    Raz says, "Okay, I guess I'll train."

    Hours pass as Raz practices his enhancement with his Ki. However, it seems like he hit a stop in enhancing and sighs.

    "It appears that this may be the limit for enhancing at my current power. However, it should be enough for what I'm doing, currently. I should practice on my water manipulation, I've been putting it off for a while."

    More hours pass while Raz is training with his water manipulation, making some progress. However, it's a long way to go until he can reach a good foundation in such a short time.

    "We're here!" Kuro says as they come up to what seemed to be some sort of base of operations. However, that was stretching it a bit, given the buildings looked shabby and hastily built.

    Looking at the base, he sees that Kuro put down the bridge to get off the ship. Raz calmly walks off and then the bridge is pulled back up. He looks at Kuro with a deadpan face.

    "I'll let you back on board when the job is finished!"

    Sighing, Raz goes up to the base of operation and two pirates look at him with cutlasses pulled out. Raz takes out his steel sword and rushes at them immediately.

    The pirates see this and try to attack, but Raz's speed exceeds theirs and gives them deep cuts in their bodies. They are shocked but are swiftly put out of their misery by Raz cutting off their heads.

    "Two down, how many more to go?" Raz laments as he forgot to ask how many pirates there were.

    Going inside the base, pirates start going outside of the shabby buildings that were built with their weapons drawn. Around ten people come out. In one of the less shabby buildings, a person who looked like their leader came out and looked at Raz.

    "Who are you, no... it doesn't matter. You're going to die due to what you did!" The pirate captain says as he and the pirates charge at Raz.

    Seeing them all charge at once, he sweats a bit at the situation and retreats a bit.

    "It's one thing to go against a few pirates, but this many at once will kill me! I should kite them and take them out once they show some weaknesses!"

    Using his speed to his advantage, Raz does some kiting tactics to the other pirates, making it so that they almost hit him but barely dodges. This happens a few times until Raz gets his timing right and starts cutting them down.

    Bodies started falling down due to this and it didn't take long until there were only four of the remaining 11.

    "Get together! He can't kill us if we can attack from all sides!" The pirate captain says as they make a + shape with their bodies.

    Seeing this, Raz finally uses his Ki to enhance his body and his sword, causing a pale-bluish glow to appear around him and his sword.

    Readied with his Ki, Raz rushes at them with an intense speed that catches the three other pirates off guard and he cuts them in half with relative ease. This leaves the pirate captain the only one standing.

    The pirate captain seeing he's the only one left looks at Raz and laughs. Confused, Raz asks, "Why are you laughing?"

    "My crew is now fully dead after escaping from that dreaded tentacled beast after so much effort to keep them alive. It's funny, all of it has gone to waste."

    He stops laughing and his face then changes into that of one filled with rage. He says, "Come! Let's see if you have what it takes!"

    Hearing this, Raz complies and rushes at him, clashing with his sword and pushing him back. He repeats this a few times until the pirate captain's arm looks as if it's immense pain.

    Sensing the opportunity, he goes in and slashes at the pirate captain with all of his strength, making a huge slash on his body from the pirate captains shoulder to his hip. It creates a huge wound which starts gushing out a huge amount of blood.

    The pirate captain still having some strength, looks at Raz and says with his final words, "Dying finally... I can now see my children and wife again..." and faints from the blood loss. After a minute of waiting, Raz checks his pulse and says, "Mission complete."

    Going back to the ship, he sees Kuro and yells, "Hey! They're all dead! Let me up!"

    "They are? Good! More blood for the blood god!"

    The bridge comes back down and Raz quickly boards as he pulls the bridge back up.

    "So, I shouldn't have to worry about them anymore?" Kuro says to Raz and he nods. "Good! We'll be on our way back now. Do whatever you want like before."

    Raz simply nods and goes to see them going away from the base and Raz remembers the pirate captain's words.

    "Family, huh. I wonder how my family back at Earth are doing. I miss them, the grass is always greener I suppose."

    Raz sighs and decides to train to get his mind off of things.

    ***

    After hours of training and eating due to his stomach grumbling, Raz makes it back to town and goes straight to the guild to give his report.
    Raz has peaked at his enhancement skills for now. He'll need to increase his Ki again to improve it any further.
    @AliceShiki
     
  17. Zone Q11

    Zone Q11 『The Gas Mask』『Monochrome Plebeian』

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    Zoan entered the guild with Herst, but this time he had also brought back someone else.
    It did not take long for Zoan and Herst to arrive at Rex's treetop lodge. Said location is namely a little bit to the west from Nagrand. The treetop lodge was basically a wooden house on top of four large trees. The nomad had had some problems finding the place, but Herst advised him to ask the receptionist and arrived within a two hour walk.
    Just when the nomad was about to knock the door of the lodge, it was already opening itself. The one who opened the door is none other than Rex the Hunter. He immediately asked "Are you two here for the quest?" He looked tired, bags under his eyes, a sour face and his clothing disorganized.
    Zoan nodded and Rex proceeded to invite the two to enter his lodge. The two looked around. It was not only the hunter who was disorganized. His furniture was all over the place, some chairs were flipped upside down. There were liquid on the table with bottles next to it, both reeking of alcohol. It was clear that he has not been having a good time.

    "This might be sudden, but we would like to ask you a couple of questions. First of all, were you sure that the screeching only happens after midnight, lasting until morning?"
    "Yes. I have been kept awake by the sound, so I am very positive of it."
    'So it is not a diurnal cause then... in that case, perhaps it is from a nocturnal animal? Ghosts are also a possibility, but the odds of encountering one is rather low. Especially when this place is nearby Nagrand.'

    "Have you gone to check out what had made the noises?"
    "Of course I have! Had I been able to solve the problem by myself, then I wouldn't have had to spend money on putting up that quest now would I!? I have been searching for the source for almost a week by now, but it is as if the source changes location every night as well!"
    'So the cause is definitely not coincidental. I am pretty sure that it is a nocturnal animal at this point, but... the man before me is a hunter. No matter how bad he looks, he is still an experienced individual when it comes to the animals in the vicinity. ...unless he is a fake or a low class hunter, but I kind of doubt that.'

    "Hm... Very well then. The two of us shall explore your lodge for the time being. Are you fine with this?"
    "Of course! As long as you don't break anything, you can go look whatever you want! In fact, I will give you some extra tips if you clean up my lodge while you're at it," the hunter said with a genuine smile. The nomad and the farmer smiled wryly, but after thinking that more money couldn't hurt, they decided to accept the extra task.

    --- --- ---

    The two spent hours to clean up the hunter's lodge, and when they were finished it had finally become night. Rex, who had been plagued by nightmares due to his insomnia, decided to stay at the bedroom and hoped that the two adventurers would find the cause soon.
    It didn't take too long before midnight arrived, and along with it came the screeching. Zoan and Herst rose their alertness and decided to split up to cover more ground. The nomad went to look around the vicinity while Herst checks the lodge.
    'This noise... it comes from the forest?'

    Zoan entered the deeper parts of the forest on his own, and it didn't take him too long to finally encounter the source of the screeching. He opens his eyes, and found a black feathered bird.
    'No, that thing is not even a bird. A kid with a bird costume perhaps?'
    Regardless of whatever it is, it screeched towards the sky again. This time Zoan has had enough and approached the creature before him. The other party noticed his presence and began to flee. Zoan chased after the creature, and after realizing that both of them were running at the same speed, he had decided to throw his club without thinking much.
    The stone club had hit the back of the creature, and caused for it to lose its balance. It screeched again, and the nomad apprehended the creature by pressing his entire body on its back and grasping its left wing. --it was then when he felt something weird.
    'This feeling... it's a hand?'

    The creature screeched once more out of fear and struggled as if its life was depending on it. "Shut up! Don't move!" Zoan shouted, and pulled the creature's arm towards him, causing the creature to screech out of pain.
    'Gah! It's so damn loud!'
    In all honesty, Zoan was very curious about what the creature before him was, but at this point Zoan is simply angry. He put his hand around the creature's neck, readying himself to choke it, and moves his face towards its head.
    "Listen up you brat. I will kill you if you don't shut up right now."

    Then... it stopped resisting the nomad. Silence had returned in the forest.
    'One... Two... Three...'
    After counting sixty second in his mind amidst the silence within the forest, Zoan released the creature. He now takes a good look at 'it'. 'It' appears to be a beastman of sorts. It has no wings, nor does it have a beak, but its obsidian colored feathers were really attached to its skin, and its legs were those of a bird's as well.
    'So it is a beastman race I don't know. ...I don't know what to do with this though, so I guess I'll bring it over to the questgiver.'

    Zoan grabbed the beastman's wrist, and it immediately put up its hands in a defending stance, afraid to get beaten.
    "..."
    Zoan didn't say anything, and kept grabbing its wrist while walking towards his club. The beastman struggled, but couldn't escape from the nomad. Zoan took his club... and continued walking back towards the lodge.

    --- --- ---

    At morning, Rex has finally gained some sleep back. However, he was also faced with a new problem. In his living room, there were three people sitting on one table. The human, the orc, and a black feathered beastman. After listening to the nomad's story, he has decided: "I don't care what you do with it. Just don't ever let it near this house again."
    He then gave his stamp on the quest paper and the some small copper coins for cleaning his lodge, before 'politely' asking the adventurers to bring the beastman away.

    OoC: I haven't specified the gender of the beastman, so you can make it up. Zoan never paid attention to genders though. As for the race, it is winged for sure, but it can't fly either... It's more like there only for decorations.
    -> We received 15 Small Copper Coins from cleaning up Rex's house.
    "Miss Aria, I think this kid is lost. Could you please take it with you?"

    @AliceShiki
     
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  18. Zero300

    Zero300 『Mask Maker』『Kamen Rider Khaos』『Demon Immortal』

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    Target: Wolves
    Degree of Threat: E Rank
    Wanted: Dead
    Rewards: 8 Small Copper per Wolf, 10 Large Copper for the Alfa.
    Deadline: Nothing established.
    Last Seen in: East of Doylors
    Description: A den of wolves was recently sighted near our town, we can't waste precious research time in getting rid of them, but they are an annoyance to merchants no doubt. Tsk, annoying guardsmen saying they can't leave their post to go kill some wolves.
    Go out there and get rid of them, it's only a single den, so it shouldn't be too much trouble, right?
    - Irwin, Circle Magi.
    Leads In their Moves: None, they're Wolves...

    Zinc was walking about in the guild, looking for a quest to take when he saw one of the bounties posted on the bounty board. It was a request for the extermination of a den of wolves recently sighted near the town. The wolves have been putting the merchants on edge and the guardsmen say that they can’t leave their post to kill the wolves. Thinking of earning easy money, the doctor decided on taking the bounty.

    Now, he recalled that a pack of wolves ranged between ten to fifteen wolves. However, for a den, there could be as many as twenty wolves including an alpha. In order to deal with these twenty wolves, Zinc could not just charge straight in. Instead, he needed to use some underhanded tricks. Firstly, he needed some bait. Zinc went to the local butcher shop and ordered some large hunks of deer meat. Storing the meat in a large bag, Zinc rushed towards the wolf den. Arriving a couple of meters near the den, the doctor placed the meat in a clearing and held up his hand.

    “Come out.” Zinc whispered gently. “Poison these hunks of deer meat.”

    Soon after, Arsenic slithered out from Zinc’s sleeve and dug into the pieces of meat. Minutes later, Arsenic came out of the last hunk of meat. The meat, however, didn’t even change color. The pieces still retained their blood red color. Zinc smiled at his son.

    “Is it done?”

    Yes. Whoever eats that meat will die in a matter of seconds. Arsenic telepathically responded before hopping onto the doctor’s hand and slithered back into his sleeve.

    “Good.”

    Zinc nodded and stood up. He looked around and scouted a good hiding spot in the distance. Eyeing the distance, Zinc pulled out a wolf lure. With a twist, he launched the half-opened rotect jar at the poisoned meat. As soon as he threw the wolf lure, Zinc bolted towards the hiding spot. The wolf lure bounced on the meat and the cap flew off due to the momentum. The wolf lure poured out all over the poisoned meat. While Zinc hid in his hiding spot, the wolves came.

    Awwwooooo!!

    Ten wolves arrived. A larger, black-furred wolf was leading the pack of wolves. It was undoubtedly the alpha male. The wolves were red in the eyes as if in a frenzied state. They charged towards the meat, regardless of social rank. In a flash, they devoured the meat. However, the poison acted quickly. Immediately after swallowing the first bite, the wolves collapsed and turned a shade of deep green. The alpha male, true to his social rank, lasted a bit longer. He had spotted Zinc hiding in the distance and charged towards the doctor.

    However, running only sped up the poison as the venomous liquid shot towards the wolf’s heart. The alpha male collapsed onto the ground, stopping only inches away from Zinc. The doctor patted his chest in relief as he glanced at the large wolf. He clicked his tongue as he saw the waste of good materials. Zinc looked at the other wolves that laid dead next to a puddle of blood where the poisoned meat once lain. Was that all of them?

    Zinc wanted to make sure and so, he approached near the mouth of the den and listened. There seemed to be some faint sounds. Zinc rushed in with his Amputation Knife flashing…only to be met with five cubs. Oh-ho…could it be that these cubs weren’t affected by the wolf lure? Were they too young? Zinc may need to rewrite his wolf lure’s description because of this. Nevertheless, the doctor could not let these five survive. The bounty specified the death of all the wolves in this den.

    With a strong determination, Zinc swung his knife three times, tearing all five cubs into pieces. After searching the den for some loot, Zinc found five pieces of large copper and a small, silver throwing knife. Pocketing the loot, the doctor left the den and headed back to the guild to report his completion.
    • Zinc killed 15 wolves - 1 alpha, 9 adult, and 5 cubs.
    • Zinc looted the den and found 5 large copper coins and 1 small, silver throwing knife.
    @AliceShiki
     
  19. jbturkle

    jbturkle Fruit

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    Arawn walked over to the receptionist's desk holding a map.
    Arawn wished he was a bird. At least then he’d have the advantage of being able to see the ground from above and cover distances quickly. But alas, he was limited to his pitiful human body. And, oh, how pitiful it was.


    He had spent hours searching for a suitable location for Shiori, the orphanage caretaker. For whatever reason, she’d requested a riverside location large enough to accommodate homes, as well as be mostly free of monsters. Not the easiest of locations to find.


    Rivers were rather hard to identify monster dwellings in since it was possible for monsters to be located in the water. In addition, some aquatic monsters would travel along the rivers, so Arawn would have to be very careful about which location he chose.


    Because of this, Arawn had wandered up and down nearby rivers in hopes of finding a spot that fit the conditions. No dice. His search had been so far unsuccessful. He had, on the other hand, stumbled onto a monster den and been chased around for over an hour, losing his supply of food along the way.


    Now, with the sun setting and his stomach rumbling, Arawn searched for something to eat. The dim light of the sun was insufficient to hunt any animals, so he was left with only the option of foraging. He had to hurry in his search, for once the sun set, he’d have no way to find anything.

    _____________


    The sun having set completely now, Arawn looked over the meager supply he’d managed to wrangle up. It was made up of a number of wild fruits, wild greens, nuts, and the cream of the crop-- mushrooms. Certainly, more than he’d expected to get. There were enough mushrooms that he decided to store some of them in case he found the need for them again.


    He used the campfire that he’d lit with broken branches to roast these items. Arawn tore into his makeshift meal voraciously, hunger finally being sated. He quickly finished it off and sat back, patting his stomach. His meal was surprisingly good for one made up of foraged ingredients.


    Arawn soon curled up next to the fire and fell asleep, intending to continue his search the following morning. However, his rest was quickly disturbed after an hour or two. A twinge of pain in his stomach woke Arawn with a start.


    He raised himself from the ground with a groan. Perhaps it was something that he had eaten. There were always risks with foraging for food. It was possible that he’d picked up something that wasn’t good to eat. Even someone like Arawn, who was rather well versed in woodcraft, could make mistakes.


    He stumbled towards his bag and extracted a waterskin, taking a long draw from it. He sighed as the pain seemed to be alleviated slightly. Arawn looked up at the still-dark sky and shook his head despairingly. He had certainly lost out on a large amount of sleep. He headed back to his bedroll when a sudden flash in the corner of his eye made him freeze.


    Arawn snatched up his dagger silently and moved over to the source of the light. He approached the tree line stealthily and peered through a gap between the trees. Stiffening in shock, Arawn couldn’t believe his eyes. There was a large bear only a few meters away. But this was no ordinary, bear, no. This one was glowing. A strangle light rippled around its body.


    The large, glowing bear was standing on its haunches as if it walked on two feet. It turned suddenly and looked directly at Arawn. He prepared to throw himself back when the bear opened its mouth and spoke.


    “Greetings, young man. There is no need to hide from me.”


    Arawn’s reply was a brief, succinct question. “Wut?”


    The bear let out a strange growling sound and continued to speak. “My name is Bearrius, and I am here to assist you.” Arawn continued to blink in shock.


    “D-Did you just speak?” he asked, unable to get over the strange, talking, glowing bear. The bear let out another growl that Arawn suspected might be laughter.


    “I did indeed,” it said. “But enough of that, we must be going.”


    “Nonononononono,” Arawn cried. “Why can you speak? And why are you glowing?”


    “Why not?” the bear questioned back. Arawn’s mouth flopped open and closed like a fish, unable to respond coherently.


    “Now, let us depart,” it stated. “We have quite a distance to cover. Follow me, now.”


    The bear strode off away from Arawn with long steps, walking on its hind legs. Arawn trailed behind it numbly, somehow obeying the jovial bear’s order. The strange pair walked for nearly an hour in silence, until Arawn spoke up.


    “Um… Mr. Bearrius, was it?” he asks. “Not to be rude, but… what exactly are you?”


    The bear simply smiled before posing a question of his own. “Well, what do you think I am?”


    “...I don’t know.”


    “Think about it. I’m sure it’ll come to you eventually.”


    The duo once again lapsed into silence and continued to walk.

    _____________


    Their journey came to an end at a large clearing separated from a nearby river by a thin line of trees. The bear turned and faced Arawn in the middle of the clearing.


    “Here we are, young man. Our final destination.”


    Arawn turned to look around the clearing. It was very spacious, many times the size of a large house. It was located near a river and appeared to have few to no monsters nearby. In other words, his quest goal.


    “Huh? You wanted to take me to this place?” Arawn asked. “To help me finish my quest?”


    “Of course,” the bear replied. “I believe I told you that I am here to assist.” After a brief pause, the bear began again. “Have you found the answer to your question? What do you think I am?”


    “Are you an illusion?” Arawn asked hesitantly. The bear shook its head silently. “...A spirit?” Another shake. “Then I really don’t know… Can’t you just tell me?” he pleaded.


    “Well, I suppose I could give you this for free,” the bear said grudgingly. “I am a… hallucination. A false image created from your mind, to be exact.”


    Arawn blinked at him confusedly. “A hallucination? How could that… What… But how? Why would I hallucinate you? And a glowing bear, of all things...”


    “Them’s some funky mushrooms, boy.”


    “Wut?”


    The bear began to fade away as Arawn tried to process the fact that he had been following a figment of his imagination through the woods for hours in the middle of the night. Barely noticing Bearrius leaving, Arawn stared out into the air, completely distraught by this new development. Soon enough, Arawn was left alone in the clearing, no sign of a glowing bear left behind.


    He came to himself with a start and looked around once more. Seeing no signs of the hallucination, Arawn sighed tiredly and plopped down on the ground. He decided to put the issue of strange bears out of his mind. After all, he managed to reach his goal in the end, even if it was by… strange means. Arawn looked around another time and came to a realization.


    “...Where the f*ck am I?”
    Acquired 5 Hallucinogenic Mushrooms: Can be used to have a hallucination. For Arawn, this brings forth Bearrius the Shiny Bear, a manifestation of his unconscious mind.
    @AliceShiki
     
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  20. AliceShiki

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

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    I don't understand the "surprisingly" part, you're pretty nimble for as long as I have known you, never saw a superhero as fast as you~

    Well, good job giving Soren-san some relaxation time, better luck next time though~

    The reward will be of 7 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points~

    Take care now~