Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist's Desk

"I'm sooo telling that pumpkin guy. But it's strange that we never met, yes? Chances and all that. Well, your reward is fourteen large coppers and eight guild points! Being creative is good, yes? Sure beat backbreaking labor!"

 

"I need more people to carry the remaining fragments, but it shouldn't be able to reform since the mana is extracted from them."

*placed a large bag on the table full with core fragments*

"This is what I can bring back."

Spoiler: Report

Shia's dialogue is in Italic

Fen entered the cave after checking his equipment. After a short period of time, he found some shards scattered around the ground.

“These things have a tiny amount of mana but they are obviously coming from the core.”

“I wonder if someone moved the dungeon core to a deeper place.” He picked up the shards and throw them in the pouch.

He headed further inside the cave until he saw the glim of light leaked from the crumbling wall. They found a large snake monster with translucent crystal body in the room. It careful examined the tiny adventure that just entered its lair.

“Shia. What the dungeon core usually looks like?”

“Shouldn’t it be a large crystal?”

“You think like that too? I was just thinking the same as you. So this one is just a bit abnormal right?”

“Yep! It just a bit abnormal. Ah~ We’re on the same page today. Ahahaha”

“Indeed! Hahahaha”

The snake saw Fen as a threat, it brandished its fangs and lunge at him. As it comes in a straight line, Fen dodged to the side and attacked it with his sword but the sword didn’t leave even a scratch on the snake’s body. He sheathed the sword away and bashed it using a cane with ‘Blaz’, a dense appeared on the crystal body.

“Shia! This guy is made out of mana right? Am I wrong?

“Aaaa. Yeah. You could think like that."

“So it is born from mana.”

“Huh?”

“A ‘mana’’ right?”

“Huh!?”

“What is it then? An monster?”

“Well, it’s basically a mana core but…What’s the matter?”

“Could you eat him?”

“Hey. We have to hand in all the core fragments aren’t we?”

“We can’t carry that snake back anyway. Even we fail the quest, it’s still a win for us right? Let’s use all the shards in pouch first”

“...T-Thanks for the meal.”

Fen took out some of the fragments then engulfed them with black tendrils. The mana is drained turning the fragments into just transparent crystals with mana property. Fen bashed the Cane against the crystal snake chipping its body in the same spot. He covered his body with tattoo when he’s about to get hit and regain his mana from absorbing the crystal shards when changed to blue tattoo. Fen repeated this strategy until the floor is filled with small colourless crystal reflecting the light in that room and the snake collapsed after its body broke into two.

“I won’t do this again...ever...” He panted after a long battle when he saw the snake stopped moving. He lied on the floor spreading his arms making a long sigh.

“Good work.” A girl with white hair and red pupils came into his sight.

“Shia?” He asked. She said nothing but nodded in return. Fen was too tired to speak. ((Help me carry this thing...))

Spoiler: Note

Signature

• 'Projection' and 'Morph' skills added to Shia abilities list
• Blue pattern (utility) and Morph: Blaz unlocked
• Equipment updated

@AliceShiki

 

(As a matter of fact, I should be the one to apologize... I haven't been online much lately, which is why I failed to answer this quest until now. Sorry.)

"Oh, you're back, good. Let's see..."

After reading the report, Garret's eyebrows lock together in a frown.

"So it really wasn't just his imagination... very well. Here is your reward, 7 large copper coins, and 4 guild points. We will be sure to address this issue in another quest."

 

*puts fingers on forehead*

Yeah... Eating the fragments wasn't really part of the job description...

I'll let it slide because you brought some of it back... But be more careful in the future.

Your Reward will be of 13 Large Copper Coins, 5 Small Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points... Consider yourself lucky you got this much, alright?

 

"I think the overall issue should be finished within two weeks."

Spoiler: Garden Variety Warfare

"We've beaten back the initial floral assault, but the rest have buried themselves deep in the soil. We can't really do anything big without ruining the backyard...Which would defeat the purpose of submitting a request."

"Fair enough. Then, what kind of issues are still remaining in the garden?" - E

"Oh, odds and ends; just take a look at the backyard."

Elaine glanced out of the glass windows, and sighed.

"...It looks like a scene out of a swamp. What kind of magic was used in there?" - E

"...It seems that when the teacher was demonstrating area of effect magic usage, he habitually went with his usual spells, which, with him being a necromancer, ended up rather horribly for the lawn…Afterwards, the young miss tried to bring the dead vegetation back to life with a revival spell, with mixed success...And here we are."

A spinach made eye contact with Elaine, stuck a tongue out at her, and then disappeared into the ground.

"How am I meant to catch those things? I don't feel safe touching them with my hands, for one. Plus, they're undead. Won't I become a zombie too if I get bitten?" - E

"Well...they have been noted to fear fire, which makes sense and all but...I'd rather you don't end up razing the backyard to the ground. Also, it seems that the effect is not cross-species, we've had a few soldiers being bitten without too much consequence."

"Uwah, so the method of fighting fire with fire is also out, huh…Wait, fire with fire...Oh, I know!" - E

Elaine leaned over to whisper in the old wizard's ear, causing him to raise a bushy eyebrow.

"Alright, I understand."

* * *

Soon enough the guard was back, a small paper bag held in her right hand. Elaine held her hands out expectantly for them.

"What's in that bag?"

"Seeds." - E

"Seeds?"

"Yep! Let's make the cleaning up fun!" - E

The curious pair of children had also followed along to take a look, and because of that, the grumbling old wizard ended up being dragged along too.

"Alright, so if I throw a seed here…" - E

*Plop*

The seeds that landed on the ground grew quickly, and bloomed in a span of ten seconds. It had the structure of any regular flower, but…

"There's a face on the flower?!"

...The plant winked at the observers. The shape of its leafy green head was also rather unique, looking like a vase lying by its side.

"Look! The undead vegetables!"

At the other end of the yard, a few vegetables begun popping out of the ground. Vegetables with sharp jaws and glowing red eyes...and they seemed to be saying something. She could barely make out a groaning sound with her ears, over all that distance.

"...ins…"

"They're coming! Guards, get your weapons ready!"

"No, those won't be effective enough! Here, each of you take one of these!" - E

Quickly, she placed a seed in the hands of every person there, including the two children and Askel himself.

"What do we do with these seeds?"

"It'll be easier to demonstrate than to explain! Watch closely now!" - E

As the undead vegetable slowly got within range, the plant that Elaine had grown earlier suddenly turned around to face it, arching its head back...

*Pew*

A small pea was fired from it's vase shaped mouth, knocking the vegetable over. On second thoughts, forget a vase, the thing was shaped more like….a cannon.

"...Eh?"

"No time for that! There's more coming, so hurry up and throw them onto the grass too! They're already approaching!" - E

"O-Okay!"

*Plop* *Plop* *Plop*

Like their predecessor, the seeds sprouted and matured in a manner of seconds, becoming all manner of plants with humanoid features.

What looked like the top half of a corn flung corn pellets, using it's leaves as a catapult. Occasionally, it threw a small pastel yellow brick that seemed to stop incoming attackers.

Then there was a plant that looked like a purple, round fruit...with huge and sharp teeth. When the first unlucky unvegetable got within its range...CHOMP.

"You have to control the attacks! Otherwise, they'll only ever attack in the same direction! Imagine drawing a bow, and think of the direction changing!" - E

Things were going quite well until Elaine's green pea-firing plant suddenly stopped, drooping over.

"Eh?!"

"That's nothing to be worried about! We just need sun, a lot of it! Missy, can you cast [Illumination] and maintain it?" - E

"Uhm...Sure!"

Sophia clapped her hands together, creating a small orb of intense light. The light touched the plants that were too tired to continue defending, and suddenly all of them were back to being energetic.

But that wasn't all.

A tiny humanoid wearing a (small) pumpkin for a helmet pulled itself out of the ground, armed with (small) pumpkin armour, a (small) pumpkin tower shield and a (small) pumpkin greatsword.

"...Is that...Gourd?" - E

As the stunned spectators watched on, the tiny guy pounded it's shield, and bellowed. Small red marks appeared on it's armour as it hefted the shield, and charged towards the undead vegetables.

Yep, that's definitely Gourd. I know Shiori made these plants as toys for her children, but they're a bit...how to say it...a bit too wasteful? A potion that speeds up plant growth exponentially in exchange for decreasing lifespan proportionally...

The unvegetables weren't strong, but they could burrow underground. The guards couldn't, which made extermination very difficult. Therefore, she had borrowed a few of Shiori's prototypes...fragile and weak, but controllable.

"They're only toys and don't have too much fighting power. Use them sparingly, nya."

And now, Elaine was looking at the aftermath. The Plants Vs Unvegetables war was a one-sided massacre that ended in full favour of the plants.

'Don't have too much fighting power' my ass. The only demerit is the fact that these guys are temporary summons and are thus really limited in power. Otherwise, it's like having an army of hyperactive children constantly around you.

"It's all good and well that we cleared up the mess for now but...what do we do with these little guys?"

"Don't worry. Shiori made these for her own children to play with, they'll disappear naturally after a short while...Eh?" - E

There was tugging on her socks. Elaine glanced downwards slowly, and found something she was already subconsciously anticipating to see.

The tiny replica of Gourd was still there, even though the other plants, including her own, were gone. Before anyone else could say anything, Sophia had already picked up the small gourd and cradled it protectively to her chest.

"It was cute, so I thought: Stay! And then buffed him while he was fighting."

An awkward silence descended upon the small group. Askel coughed a few times.

"If it's just a pet, then...there should be no problem...I think…Is it dangerous?"

"...To her enemies, yes. If it's anything like the real person, then nothing bad will happen." - E

"Then it should be fine…hopefully. I'll just tell the Baron that the young miss got herself another pet. He's probably used to it by now…ahem."

"Yay! I'll call him Gourd Jr!"

"Here, take this. When you have guards assigned to watch the backyard, give them one each just in case. There's about twenty seeds in this pack, so if you use them sparingly, it should be enough for a while. If there's nothing else, I'll go ahead first." - E

"Ah, no problem...Also, could you help me deliver this?"

Elaine received 10 Large Copper from the old wizard.

"It's payment for those plants. Could you pass it to your friend on my behalf?"

"While I don't think Shiori really expected to get paid for a little bit of help, she'll probably buy sweet treats for her children with this. So on their behalf, thanks, old man!" - E

@AliceShiki

 

Drenched in sweat, Dantia came to the desk for her report.

"Uweeeeh~ totally sweaty~ gonna need a bath after this nya~

Hm? Why's the request still posted there by the way? Aria-san? I did it though? You stamped though?"

"See? Nyehehehe. Anyways! I'm here with my report!"

Spoiler: Foxflame nya dance performance quest thingy please check nya

The orphanage wasn't too far away from the guild hall, Dantia arrived quite soon. There she saw some lively kids frolicking and playing about, adults who looked like performers and magicians, and other adventurer-looking few.

Dantia briskly walked towards the gathering and found the client, an adult with appearance almost no different than ordinary kids. She told her that she saw the quest at the guild and explained briefly about her plan.

"Basically, I dance. It will look like a fire dance however, no harm when you touch my flames. These flames are my skills and depends on my intention they can even heal~"

Shiori the client accepted her explanation and scheduled Dantia's performance to be held in roughly 1 hour. The so-called "mini festival" was not boring at all, with most of the performers being adventurers. Perhaps this would also spark the kids' interest to learn some skills, Dantia thought, since this city is brimming with adventurers.

Finally it was Dantia's turn to perform. There were no stage, it was only an empty space surrounded by kids. Stepped there, Dantia smiled, wiggled a little bit while her mouth exhaled pleasantly cute "nya-nya" sounds. She then spoke loudly,

"hello, kids! Name is Dantia! I'm a newbie adventurer! Now, if you ask me 'are you a cat?' no, I am not! I'm a foxcat beastman nya! And then you'll ask me 'what are you going to do?' then my answer is... THIS!"

*WHOOOSH*

Suddenly, the foxcat girl was exploding... No, she wasn't. But it looked like so because two huge fire balls twisting around her, seemingly bursting out of thin air, spinning and spinning around her.

Prelude dance - Taika.
The skill was activated quite a while ago but she held the flames back for the impact.

"I present you: foxflame dance!"

As if the dancing flames weren't enough attention stealing act, a cute girl was added to the already dancing flames. At times, she moved graciously slow, then rapidly switched gears to huge acrobatics. On some playful movements she would tease the kids by bringing the flames close, only for them to claim while laughing "whaaat, the flames are cold! How can it be!" Which Dantia replied with "Well, it's not cold... But if you compare it to usual flames then yeah i guess?"

The dance kept going for a few minutes, and it was closed by happy claps from many pairs of small hands .

[[ @AliceShiki ]]

 

Plants VS Zombies huh? Been a while since I last heard of that... Well, you probably never heard of it yourself though~

Good job clearing it I suppose, seems like Sophia-sama is getting pretty good at magic~

Your reward is of 19 Large Copper Coins and 8 Guild Points~

Take care now~

 

Ah, my apologies Dantia-san, it seems I made a blunder this once, I'm glad no problems came from it though. *bows in apology*

((Oof! I forgot to update the Quest Board! >.<))

You did an excellent job though, I'm sure the children were pretty happy about it~

... It's always good to see them getting a change of pace, wish I could have seen their reactions to your dance~

I digress, your reward is of 7 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points~

Take care now~

 

"Itadakimasu~"

 

"I'm back. Do I have to leave the spikes here or deliver them directly to the client?"

Spoiler: Report

He arrived at the area where other adventures have spotted the manticore, he searched for old spikes and footprints that can lead him to the manticore. Once the cave in the forest came into his view, he hid on the tree branch waiting for the target to come out. The manticore came out and headed towards the south when the sun was right above Fen’s head, he tailed the manticore from far away to not make it notice him.

It stopped at the open area looking for a movement of the animal in the forest to feast. Fen shot a mini grappling hook from his armguard across the open area and launched his body when the hook is tied with a tree branch in the opposite side. Fen splashed three bottles of wolf lure on the manticore body while in the air, he then cut the rope and landed roughly on the tree. The manticore agitated and searched for the person that disturbed it. The odour of the liquid lured the packs of predators to the manticore.

Several packs of wolves jumped out from the forest and attacked the beast. The enraged beast shot spikes from its tail impaling the rushing wolves. The fight changed to close combat, the beast attacked a group of predators using its spikes and claws while the wolves tried to bite its legs. The manticore feasted on the fallen predators and went back to the cave when the wolves are eliminated.

After seeing it retreated back to its habitat, Fen came out and gathered all the spike on the floor and wolf’s bodies, then he continued to follow the beast. Fen confirmed that the manticore is not furious and would not cause a problem afterwards. He drew a rough map that located the manticore cave before he went back to Nagrand. During the way back to town, he suffered few injuries from ramming into the tree using the grappling hook on the arm guard.

@Naraku

 

((*Incinerates @Quaesitor again*))

Spoiler: No Selling

It stared at the human, who stared back at it.

It whipped it's tail, sending spikes flying towards her face.

But the girl had already retreated back into the fog, and the spikes failed to score a hit. Annoyed, it roared once, loudly, keeping a wary eye out for attacks, but nothing happened.

The manticore glared, fed up. It was the third time this week that someone had taunted it, all so that it would fire spikes at them.

And so, it decided not to take any notice, unless the opponent showed themselves.

Prowling around, the manticore sniffed the air, taking in the unfamiliar scent of humans. The first guy had smelled like blood and sulfur, while the second smelled of war. Then, for a moment, it caught a glimpse of the intruder darting about in the undergrowth.

A girl. Probably---all those humans looked the same to it.

She seemed to be here with the same purpose as the other two annoying creatures earlier. Well, she can stuff herself, then. The manticore wasn't going to bother giving away more of its spikes. They did grow back, but the manticore wasn't a gift dispenser.

Said girl poked her head out of the fog a few times, but the manticore didn't pay any more attention to her. The girl looked crestfallen, causing the manticore to give a snort of laughter.

Then---

An almost physical sense of dread struck it, causing it's fur to stand on end.

***

Elaine was feeling bummed out. Half an hour ago, she had found the manticore dozing in a clearing, and was about to attempt sneaking and running off with a few spikes while it was distracted, but a stroke of good luck occurred; a thick fog blanketed the area, allowing her to hide better. The bad thing, however, was that the manticore woke up.

Initially, the plan was to get it to fire off spikes at her, duck back in the fog, and gather the spikes later, but after a few rounds of this, the spikes stopped flying.

Did manticores have limited spikes too?

She took a peek. The manticore was still there, but it seemed to be ignoring her.

"Oi, kitty kitty."

No response.

"Nya nya?"

No response.

"Nyaaaaaa!"

She saw the manticore's ears twitching, so Elaine continued calling out. By the time she'd exhausted her list of conventional pet nicknames, and begun on the actual names, the manticore was practically about to explode with rage.

"Mr Paws!"

The manticore was trembling with anger, yet it would not fire spikes at her. How infuriating. Elaine could not help but to glare at it a little bit.

The manticore seemed to shrink a bit, before it's tail finally whipped around and half heartedly shot a few spikes at her. She didn't even need to dodge for half of them to miss completely.

Finally, with a cry of indignation (or so she thought), the manticore turned and ran off.

What the heck was that about?

 

"Perhaps..." Garret mumbles, "we should introduce a form of wildlife protection system."

"Anyway, good job out there. Here's your reward, 14 large copper coins, and 8 guild points."

 

"Well, it was rather simple, ain't it?", reading the report, Gaap immediately said after reading it and then replied to Fen's question while preparing his reward.

"Let's see...well, I guess I can head out and deliver the spikes, shouldn't be a problem. No need to bother yourself, I don't have much to do after all.", shrugging, the receptionist then handed the reward to Fen with a slight smile.

"Here you go, 14 Large Copper Coins, you have done a good job, hope it will continue like this."

 

Spoiler: Crystal Golem

V went to the location of the Crystal Cave that was provided by the requester of the quest, it is located somewhat near the northern border of Ternus, slightly to the east of Nagrand.


It was rather a straight to the point journey, he was excited to test out his new sword on the possible monsters in the caves. He could go back to the Caves of the Dead to fend off some undeads as a test subject, but attacking rotting bones and ghouls, was not worth the sword’s true potential.


He would find the crystals in the cave as a good test subject, wanting to cut them down in a clean cut like the stupid shows he used to watch when he was a kid.


‘Hey, hey. No bad-mouthing arts!’, yet another internal screaming from the ‘friendly’ neighbourhood Veri.


He had reached to a small entrance to the crystal cave, and sure enough, he could see the crystals already sticking out from a glance into the caves.


“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!~”


They entered into the cave, checking out the beautiful and colorful crystals from every side of their walk into the area.


Valuren let out a forced cough, “Hmm… why do I feel sick all of the sudden?”

He continued on tapping on each crystals as they begin to glow and makes a echoing sound, into every parts of the cave. He looked rather happy about it, despite knowing full well of his sudden sickness.


There might be a hidden danger, one of that his own self could not handle it or make it out alive. Yet, he faces around for any monsters in the area near him, there were nothing. As mush as he wanted to play with the crystals, making a plausible song out of it. He needs to explore more in the caves.

“Hm?”, after 10 more minutes of walking deep into the caves, he found himself a lake, with several monsters that looked like they were crystallized on some parts of their bodies.


‘Crystal… skeletons? Undeads?‘, even though the undeads had no weapons on their grips whatsoever, Valuren cannot be so sure about their hostility behaviour.


The skeletons only roamed around the lake before going back into a corner where he can no longer see it. Not close to a minute later, another creature entered back to the ‘crystal lake’, drinking from it.

‘Lizards… now?’, he finds himself having a hard time standing up from his covers, he felt the sudden drain of his energies, but continues on, sneaking past the crystallized creature to another path nearby.


He gasped in a surprise after stumbling into a crystal being similar to a rather large sized golem, the crystal golem was eyeing him down, making Valuren break into an extreme nervous smile before reaching away from the golem.


“...Human.”


Shivers hit straight down to his spines as he heard the golem spoke the language of his own world. He turned around, his hand are aching to manifest his whip, he wanted to escape this situation as fast as possible.

He then wondered about what the golem had just said, it was rather confusing to hear his own home language being spoken by a being, especially a golem!


“...I see… how about now… Human?”

Upon hearing the Common language being spoken by the golem, Valuren decided to calm himself down, by greeting to the golem, he couldn't.


“U-Uhm… please forgive me for… interrupting your slumber…?”, he had not realised that he had tilted his head, out of fear.


“...I had been awake since you, Human, entered into my home... However...you are different, who are you, Human?”


“U-Uhm… I’m called Valuren, Valuren Chaan Hourtha is my full name…”, he let out a nervous laugh as he drops down on the ground, looking up to the golem.


“...I see… Valuren Chaan Hourtha, are you afraid…?”, the golem noticed Valuren almost jumped over the rocky sounds of its’ hand moving toward him after reaching something from its’ back.

“Take this… as a gift from me, Valuren Chaan Hourtha.”


Valuren finds a crystallized flower inside on the golem’s hand, grabbing the flower from it and looked at the glowing flower, he looked back toward the golem and only nodded, he was speechless.


Before leaving the cave, he looks at the crystallized flower, before taking a sniff of the flower, it had no smell until…

“Smells like iron…?”


He felt the warmness inside of his nostril, he had realised that he had a nosebleed, and nausea at the same time. He rushes out of the cave, coughing out blood while still gripping to the crystal flower.


“W-What the hell was that…?”

He stands up after putting away the still glowing crystallized flower into a small case he had borrowed from Lyra.


“Hm? You chickening out, my Valuren?”

He tells her what had happened earlier, and she was dumbfounded as she had no single recollection of what was going on with him.


He takes out a wild gardenia out of his inner jacket, sniffing it a little before storing it back for a quick snack of berries. He let out a sigh after he calmed down from what was going on with the interactions with the crystal golem and the unlikely, less hostile-like behaviour of the creatures inside.

He comes to a conclusion that, a longer period of staying inside the crystal cave will cause some sort of motion sickness.

“Hell strike me down, that golem was scary as hell.”

His inner soul continued after Valuren puts down the report and a small case that belonged to the requester on the desk, “We got something… for Miss Lyra. A golem 'gifted' it to him, he said."

@AliceShiki

 

Well, that was certainly quite unexpected... A sentient golem that gave you a very weird flower that gave you a nausea and a nosebleed? Seems dangerous.

I'm sure Lyra-san will love looking into it though, thanks for your hard work Valuren-san, glad you could come back safely~

The reward is of 8 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points~

Take care now~

 

Task: Unknown Poison
Requester: Mary, Nagrand's Healer
Quest rank: Rank up to D rank
Rewards: Bronze Guild Badge
Description: A patient reached Nagrand yesterday and had an unreasonably strong fever on him. I tried a few spells but none had much success in healing him.
He woke up today and told me he was bitten by a snake endemic to the Eastern region of the Beastmen Alliance... Considering how he is still alive now, it should be safe to assume the snake's poison acts extremely slowly, but he shouldn't live much longer.
However, I'm afraid none of Nagrand's herbalists know how to cure this specific poison, and the man in question doesn't have enough money in him to pay for a Mandragora potion.
Your task is to find a way to cure him.

Spoiler: “Unknown Poison Rank-Up Quest”

Zinc rushed over to the patient and quickly checked his pulse with one hand while Zinc laid the back of his palm on top of the man’s head with the other hand. The man’s forehead was burning hot to the touch and his pulse raced unsteadily fast. Zinc touched the man’s arms and chest and felt that both areas were hot yet dry. Generally, people suffering from severe fever would be sweating constantly, however the man before him was dry.

Scratching his head, Zinc closed his eyes and looked through all the medical knowledge stored in his memories. After some thought, Zinc breathed with relief. Luckily, he was able to recall at least a dozen possible solutions for this problem. If he had found none, then even he would have a hard time curing the patient. With twelve solutions in mind, Zinc continued to check for other symptoms. While he continued to check the patient, the man kept pestering him about the situation, despite his shortness of breath. Noting that, Zinc patted the man on the shoulder and told him that there isn’t anything to worry about. The doctor promised the man that he will be cured.

After the doctor calmed down the man with words of reassurance, he glanced towards the copper buckets in the far corner of the room, a permeating stink hovered above the buckets. Holding a handkerchief over his nose, the doctor bravely strode towards the buckets. With a few quick peeks, Zinc was able to confirm that the contents of those buckets were vomit and stools respectively. From the runniness of the stools, Zinc confirmed that the patient was suffering from extreme diarrhea. Zinc could see bits and pieces of undigested food among the mix of feces and water. Strange…but not uncommon.

Next, the doctor glanced over at the vomit bucket and noted that the contents seemed partially digested. Suddenly, Zinc widened his eyes as he stared at the vomit bucket. In disbelief, he glanced back at the stool bucket. Zinc studied the two buckets for a long while before sighing in exhaustion. This doesn’t make sense. This just doesn’t make sense at all! All symptoms indicate drug abuse but just a simple drug abuse couldn’t possibly be incurable at the hands of Nagrand’s herbalists. Not to mention, the cause of this poisoning is an unknown snake. Zinc had checked the bite mark earlier. The affected area was completely black…and it was spreading outwards at a rapid pace. What kind of snake leaves a devastating mark like that? Even as Zinc perused his memories, he could not pinpoint to any of the snakes he had encountered or read about.

“Dammit!” Zinc cursed under his breath. “Even the king of snakes wouldn’t have this much of an affect on a person. Wait! The king of snakes…if the king of snakes wouldn’t work, then what about the god of snakes – the basilisk?”

That’s the right…the basilisk could be the only option. Obviously, Zinc had never encountered one but he had read about them plenty of times. Now, some would say that the poison of a basilisk could turn their victims into stone. That may be true but there were records of people who had slow down the effects of the basilisk poison…in time to jot down the symptoms that came before the fatal symptom. Fever, nausea, diarrhea, shortness of breath, coma…it all fits! Sure, some may argue that these effects happened in a span of a minute yet the patient before Zinc was still alive. However, if they were to consider the possibility of a baby basilisk, then it all makes sense. A baby basilisk’s venom isn’t stable and it isn’t as potent as a fully-grown one. This could explain why the patient was still alive after suffering through all that.

With this in mind, Zinc quickly touched the blackened skin. The skin of the affected area was hard to the touch as if the arm was made of obsidian or some kind of stone. Confirmed! No wonder the herbalists had trouble. How can they heal something as relentless and as persistent as basilisk venom? Having deduced that the poison was basilisk venom, Zinc knew he had a little less than a day to counteract the poison and cure the dying man. He had heard his master talk about curing a basilisk bite with the tears of a phoenix but where could Zinc find a phoenix? The dwelf continued to think about this matter.

“The only reason we use phoenix tears to counteract the poison of a basilisk…was because we needed something extremely hot to deteriorate the components that make up the poison. But using this method was extremely dangerous, especially for an ordinary person. Not to mention, the poison came from a baby basilisk and not from an adult one.” Zinc muttered to himself as he exited the room.

The doctor notified the people watching over the patient that he was going to step out for a while to do some further research. If anything happens to the man, they should notify him as soon as possible. Once he bid his farewells, Zinc strode to his house in wide steps. As soon as he reached his room, Zinc started rummaging through his books on poison and acupuncture. The methods for dealing with poison were numerous…but luckily for him, the methods using heat were fewer than a hundred. If he were to consider using acupuncture to simulate cooling factors into the solution, there was only one answer to his problem. In literal terms…he was going to cook the man alive.

Zinc hurried back and ordered the people watching the patient to bring over some stuff including firewood, buckets of water, and a large cauldron. They glanced at Zinc unusually but nevertheless brought over the items. Once everything was settled, Zinc had them bring the patient to a sitting position in the cauldron. The dwelf filled the cauldron with water and began lighting the bottom with fire. Once the firewood caught on fire, the doctor began to wait. As soon as the water began to boil and the patient started screaming from pain, Zinc stabbed the man in different areas of his head with numerous thin needles in order to stop the pain. Then, Zinc fed him some wild mint while slitting his wrists in order for him relieve some heat.

The juices from the wild mint would cool his insides while bleeding would remove heat and poisonous blood. Zinc reached into his utility belt and pulled out a long needle, about the length of his middle finger. With this needle, Zinc stuck it deep in the depression under the man's collar bone (known as the Shu Mansion), hitting a mythical acupoint that helps detoxify the poison in the man’s body and purge it from the body. There was a faster and surer way to purging the poison, but that involved sticking the needle into the man’s heart. However, Zinc was not confident enough in his abilities to perform such an operation.

As the needles and the hot “bath” purged the poison in the man’s system, Zinc continued to press and massage many of the man’s acupoints in order to relieve heat and cool the body. Every so often, the doctor would also feed some wild ginseng root to the man in order for him to recover blood loss. After a night of boiling and several water replacements, Zinc had finally drained away all of the poison from the man’s body. Once he was done, Zinc quickly had the man lifted from the cauldron and laid on top of a bed. Because of the night of constant blood loss and forceful blood recovery, the man was very weak.

Zinc applied some Blood Lily Salve on the slit wrists in order to stop the bleeding and heal the wounds. After he wrapped the wrists with bandages to hold the salve in place and apply some pressure to the wounds, Zinc slowly fed the man some diluted Rejuvenation Tonic and Revitalizing Solution in order for him to recover. As the man was very weak, the doctor could only dilute the two fluids as feeding them straight could prove counterproductive. Soon, the man recovered and, in a day or two, he woke up. After finishing the request, Zinc salvaged the baby basilisk poison from the “bath” water and stored them into a couple of large rotect jars for research purposes. Then, he headed back to the guild to report on his success.

@AliceShiki

 

Spoiler: Slug-slug slug

He landed himself on top of a tree, preparing himself for the upcoming fight against a creature he had never met nor fought before. Holding the new sword on his left grip, and manifesting the chained whip on his right hand.

Preparation is done for the first slug-kill.


“I can sense the slug’s around, care now.”


Using the same path as the requester mentioned in the quest paper, he was attacked as soon as he leave the treeline. A projectile hits the blunt tip of his whip, he was lucky enough to deflect the projectile from hitting his leg.


‘You were lucky that it didn’t hit ya, be careful and fight!’

Valuren speeds up straight to the slug, deflecting the projectile shot by it with his whip and dodging around as he advances forward.


The slug was eyeing him down with its’ only one eye while still shooting either sharp or blunt projectiles straight to him. One projectile managed to rip off the right sleeve of Valuren’s jacket, he noticed both the ripped sleeve and the heavy bruise on his right arm.


“Tch.”, dodging around and reaching the slug, he slices down a part of its’ body with a swing of the whip, it was a futile attempt.


The slug, decided to use its’ mid-recovering parts as an attack, slamming down its’ slimy parts on where Valuren is.

He stumbled away from the attack, only to be blinded by the slug parts on his face.


It began to create another projectile to strike him, at this range and the current condition of V’s, he will receive the damages full-on. Valuren grips on his katana as he wipes down the slime off his face.


A projectile was shot, halved by the katana he’s gripping on, yet, the projectile parts hits both of his shoulders, it felt like a bullet pierces through his right shoulder while his left shoulder, only a scratch.


“Carnage!”

Valuren spun around clockwise before releasing a wide slash on the slug’s parts, cutting down the slug part holding its’ one eye.


He stopped himself from slicing down the slug with his whip to find the slug’s form, reducing down in size, another projectile was shot near him, misses completely by a few centimeters. He finds the eye drops inside of the slug’s body and stabs his sword straight to the eye.

There was a delay on the slug, before bursting out in slimy parts all around the area, Valuren had covered his face from the flying parts and finds himself, inspecting the blade changing colour from the normal steel to a red glow, for a quick moment.


He wipes his own body off the slimy parts, he was clearly grossed out of the parts.


“Eww… I really hope that these doesn’t smell…”


“Anyway, how was the sword? It’s not bad, right?~”


He lifted the sword, and takes out the eye from the blade. The eyeball had no blood coming out of it despite being pierced by the sword, it’s safe to say that the size of the eyeball is similar to a soccer ball.


He then switched his attention to his surroundings, dead slug parts all over the place. He takes out the quest paper and re-reads them, before stating that he don’t have to clean the place. But, he felt that he needed to bring proof of the kill back to the guild.

Then, he returned to the guild with an injured shoulder and the slug’s eyeball.

"He brought back the slug's eyeball... as proof of the kill.", he wanted to put the eyeball on the desk but at the same time, he wanted to throw it away as soon as possible.

@AliceShiki

 

A basilisk's poison? Dear Gods, the man was certainly lucky to survive this long... Excellent job healing him Zinc-san, I'm sure both him and Mary-san were very happy with your performance~

As of now, you're officially a D-ranked adventurer, congratulations~
Please take this bronze guild badge as a reward, as before, it has the guild's symbol in its front and your name in its back, though it's not as shoddy as the one I carved on the spot back when you registered~

Remember to be careful with it too of course though, you'll get a fine if you lose it after all~

Lastly, remember to be careful and not overextend yourself, just because you're of a higher rank now, it doesn't mean you should become overconfident, quests will only get tougher and tougher from now on.

Once again, congratulations, Zinc-san, may the gods bless your path~ *bows*

 

Ugh, this must have been gross... No need for showing the proof of completion, alright? I'll trust you, Valuren-san... *shivers*

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

Take care now~

 

Spoiler: Angry Cats

After I got my quest, I tried to ask if someone has any idea on how to calm down the cats. Sadly, it ended up without much result, as the other methods seem to have failed. Since I couldn't find any solution to base on, I simply decided to check on the cats first and asked the cat-eared receptionist where I could find them.

As always, the girl called Aria made a professional business smile and guided me further in the guild building, passing by many doors before she led me into a room.
What awaited me behind the door, were actually a room of pastel colors, filled with cats, pillows and... well cat things? However, I quickly notice one thing out of place. In a corner of this comfy looking room, a big iron cage was placed not too far from the window. And inside of that cage, were five rather aggressive looking cats, hissing angrily to us.

"Lykke-san, the cats are here, for safety reason they have been... locked up." The girl told me with a hint of sadness, too speechless to give a proper response, I could only mutter an "I..see..." to her.

As I began to regret that I couldn't say anything better, Aria suddenly turns to me and said:
"Please, do your best to help them, before this they have always been good kids just like the others cats."

That was probably the moment I should reassure her, that everything would be fine, but if I do so I would be lying...
Instead, I told her: "I..I... will do everything I can, but... I can't promise anything..."

The girl nodded and told me to call her if I needed something, I think she said something more, however, I couldn't hear her as she left the room.
_______________________

The next few days, I tried to calm or distracting the cats with food and toys to no avail. If they weren't clawing at the cage, they will glare and hissing at me with anger. When I lucky the cats just stare warily at me, making the situation quite awkward.

I spend so much time in that room, hoping they will at least get used to me, though... I can't tell the difference if there was...

As I thought about how there hasn't been any process, I couldn't help but make a sigh.
"There, one berry juice ready for you."
"E..eh..? But I didn't order for this?"
"Don't worry, the drink is on me."
"I.. I can't just make you pay for me..."
"Please accept it Lykke, you seem to have some difficulty, so I wanted to cheer you up."
"Um... t..thank you, Sofie..."

Feeling somewhat embarrassed by how easily people can read me, I bowed my head for a while and drank the delicious juice I was given. It wasn't until I had eaten my dinner, that I told Sofie about the cat issue.

"I see, that was why you were sighing earlier."
"Yeah... so I want to know if you know someone who can help me with this."
"Well, I know of a strange lady who knows of many stories, especially the cat stories. She lives not too far from here, so maybe you can seek her for some advice?"
"It sounds to be a good idea, how do I find her?"

After I asked, Sofie told me to wait for a bit and came back with a hand-drawn map. When I thanked the waitress for her help, I went out to look after the lady's house.
____________________

Knock Knock Knock

"E..excuse me... is someo- ah!" I cut off in surprise, never expecting a cat will jump out of the door. "Oh. Hello," I greeted the cat, "you really startled me. Is your owner home?" I asked, never really an answer form it.

Out of my expectations though, the cat responded with a meow and seems to understand what I said. Feeling that I should follow the clever cat, I let it guide me inside the house. When I reached my destination, which I assuming to be the living room, an old woman was already seated seemly to waiting for someone.

"Oh... today's guest is a rather young lady, please take a seat so we can talk."
"Y..yes.." I meekly answered and did as she said.

Afterward, she asked me why I came to visit her, and I told her the situation of my quest.

"I see... while I like to tell you, why this happened for the cats we sadly don't have enough time for that." Said the lady and raised form her seat, looking for something in a drawer. "Take this charm with you and sing some songs to the cats, after a week they should be fine. When you are done, you can return it to me."

"Are you sure I can borrow this?" I asked, unsure if I can take something that seems so valuable. "I can see you are trust worthy and I trust those eyes of mine." Was how the old lady responded with.

Seeing how much trust she have in me, I decided to give the amount of trust in her words.
A week after I started to sing for the cats, even though I felt very embarrassed to sing alone for the cats. However, I could indeed see the change on them, not only the troublesome one has become better, but even the normal cats have become more relaxed.

After everything that has happened, it really makes me wonder what the charm is...

"Um... Miss Aria... am I too late?" Asked a girl with a bit hoarse voice.
(Hope I'm in time... or there will be some dead cats...@AliceShiki)