Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist's Desk

"No mythical turtle, just your average island sized turtle. There was also something else, but since the requestor didn't ask for it, I didn't look too deeply into it. You'll probably want a water magi or the like to check it out."

Spoiler: Reeeeeeeeport

"An island turtle, huh. Wonder how I'll find it if it doesn't want to show itself to me."

The girl was sitting at the edge of the water with only her undergarments on, her other equipment bundled up and hidden in the hollow of a tree trunk. Her feet were submerged in the cool water.

"Senpai gave me no advice at all, just grinned and told me to enjoy my vacation...mou!"

Feeling restless, she hummed a little song, her feet going pitter-patter on the water surface as she did so. It was only after the third stanza when she finally decided to open her eyes.

And the wave crested over the shoreline, coming right up to her, and proceeded to get her soaking wet.

"Wah---hey!"

Wringing the water out of her hair, Elaine smiled wryly. The turtle towered well over her by no less than five times, but it was behaving like a family pet, nudging and licking her face.

"Hahaha-hey! Stop that!"

Elaine scratched the turtle on his chin, noticing the unique patch of red scales growing on its forehead.

“You are...hungry, perchance?”

The logic seemed to have gone off the rails somewhere...

“And to think it won’t even touch the food…what a fussy turtle.”

To be fair to the turtle, even if it was feeling a bit peckish, the small girl would probably fill it’s stomach better than the smaller sandwich would…

It nudged Elaine with it's large maw affectionately.

“You...want me to come with you somewhere?”

The turtle blinked a few times in affirmative, it's clear filmy eyelids splashing her with water.

"Okay then. I'll grab onto your shell…Excuse me…"

*****

First discovery: Wet turtle shell was slippery.

Second discovery: Humans couldn't breathe underwater (Shocking, I know).

After she'd fallen off once, the turtle stuck her into one of the air bubbles covering its shell, and resumed it's trip. Somehow she managed to not fall off again by grabbing onto the layered sea silt and rocky crusts that had formed on the turtle's shell.

Thankfully, while the turtle swam quite fast, it descended slowly, so she didn't get the bends from the sudden changes in pressure. At the same time, she managed to see the lovely undersea sights.

Too quickly, however, the turtle slowed to a stop, and remained there, making sad noises.

"Wha---Oh."

The huge expanse of a wrecked ship stretched out before her. It's full length was about as long as the turtle she was riding on, running from the bow to the stern. A galleon.

"You want me to go down there?"

*Uuuuu…*

"Alright then. Although, it's hard to move in a bubble---Eh?"

The bubble must have popped earlier, because the water was touching her skin directly. And yet she was still breathing the usual way. Elaine took a few hesitant steps.

It felt no different from walking on land.

"Uhm, okay. I'll go check it out and be right back…"

Leaving the turtle, she swam for the deck of the ship.

"This must be the cabins...Huh."

The doors used to be locked, but god knows how long of time it had spent underwater corroded the hinges right off, allowing her to push them away with ease. Then, Elaine started working her way along the corridors.

"Wonder why it decided to bring me here."

Pushing open yet another door, Elaine stepped into another cabin, this one larger and better furbished than the others.

"Captain's room, I guess. Oh, what a pity. Most of these maps and books have been destroyed by the water. They can't be used anymore."

Then she noticed the framed items still attached to the walls, and got incredibly excited.

"Those are still in good condition!"

And so the girl started looting the cabin, taking any intact frames off the walls and placing them under her elbow. After some work, she managed to get five reasonable intact frames out.

"Hmm, hmm, an intact map of the seas! Then there's this hand drawn portrait of the crew? Nice---eh?"

While it wasn't nearly as big, the captain-looking person in the portrait was sitting on the back of a turtle the size of a cow, laughing. The turtle seemed extremely eye catching.

No colours, but the artist had cleverly drawn out a small diamond-shaped scale on the turtle's forehead.

It couldn't be the same turtle, could it? This photograph looks older than I am...

Sensing something off, she briefly took her attention away from the frame in her hand, looking around the cabin.

That's when she was able to hear the dull knocks coming from the wooden floor right underneath her feet.

Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok.

Something about the hurried yet lifeless knocking told her that she would not want to meet whatever was causing it. So she gathered up her things, and bolted for the corridor, before hurrying all the way back to the turtle, who was waiting for her. As soon as she had grabbed back onto it's back, the turtle quickly took off, heading back from where they had came from.

*****

"I never raised a turtle before, but I don't think you're that young. Still, you act like one of my older sister's kittens...Did something bad happen?"

The turtle had stopped just outside the wreck and refused to approach it even a pace further. Something that old should have wisened up and gotten more intelligent, yet she saw none of that in the turtle, which was long lived just like her Senpai.

*Uuuuuuuu.*

Of course, one should remember that Mika was at least fifty times older than the turtle.

"According to this almanac page, you're an island turtle. A longevity breed to be exact...Are you listening?"

The turtle was staring at the sword in her hand.

She had summoned it earlier on her way back to the turtle, because her lack of an available weapon had suddenly unnerved her. Whatever made that noise, on a sunken vessel that looked at least a decade old...She had no intention of finding out. Additionally, she was not in the right equipment to be doing any finding out.

*Uuuuuuuuu…*

The turtle's huge eyes were focused on the sword she was holding. Compared to it, the sword didn't seem very big, but the eyes ran along the outline of the sword, blinking a few times.

"Is there something wrong with this blade?"

*Uuuuuu.*

The turtle shifted one of it's flippers, causing a small wave to knock Elaine off her feet.

"Hey! That's dangerous!"

*Uuuu.*

She wasn’t hallucinating; the blade’s glow shone brighter in the water.

H-Huh? It’s reacting to the water? Then, a sword associated with the water in some way? Wait…

There was something off about the way the sword was humming in her hands. If she had to describe it with an emotion...the sword seemed indignant, somehow. Almost as if it was reluctant.

If the previous statement is true, then the list will get smaller...somewhat. A sword with water associated to it’s legend, and absurdly sharp, hmm…I’ve got nothing.

Too many swords was still too many swords. It would be very embarrassing if she drew the wrong conclusion and ended up losing face in front of her senpai. That would be terrifying indeed.

Hmm, it hates being associated with the water element despite being attuned to it. And there was the part when I was suddenly able to breath underwater earlier...Could it be Clarent, Sword of Treason? Mordred really hated King Arthur, after all...Naw, it's too early to conclude.

If Elaine knew exactly how close her guess had been, she would probably have kicked herself.

"Well, at least now I know that you're only a species of turtle that has a long lifespan and grows bigger the older you are, so that takes care of my side, but...will you be okay?"

*Uuuuu…*

The turtle rubbed it's head against her, disconsolate.

"I'm sorry. I'm not always able to drop by for a visit, since I live far away from the sea...But if I come and visit again, will you still respond to my song?"

*Uuuu.*

The turtle licked her one more time, before dipping below the waves, vanishing from sight. Elaine pouted, a bit guilty, but soon perked up.

"Well, time to go visit that historian, and after that I'm gonna go home! My clothes need a wash before the sea salt ruins them!"

Spoiler: Notes

Pseudo Aqua Affinity: Elaine can breath underwater normally for extended periods of time.
Old World Map: Shows the sea map of the world a few decades ago.
Old Treasure Map: Shows an unknown island with an X marked on the paper.

@Lenaia

 

Spoiler: Thoughts

After Registering at the ̶c̶u̶l̶t̶ guild, I managed to slip out of that welcoming gathering and pick a quest on the board, which thankfully was an quest outside of the City.


I have a lot of thinking to do, I am not sure if entering the ̶c̶u̶l̶t̶ guild was the right choice to make… they are weird, too simpatic to an newcomer, weird, don’t act like any of the mercenaries i have met before and are weird… but the payment is good, like really, I didn’t got much time to check the other quests payment, but the once I took is paying quite well, and that from my experience is not exactly common, cause there are lots of places which don’t like mercenaries so they purposely pay less or charge some strange taxes on them…


I need time to think if it's worth… and safe to stay here…
*sigh*
I walked to the city gates searching for merchants which will leave the city, I didn’t really want to walk till the keep when my head is so full of troubling thoughts and I had to make new plans, Thankfully it wasn’t that hard to find a merchant willing to give me a lift till the keep, and while merchants aren’t known to refuse a extra guard for free I must admit that having the guild carving did helped a lot at convincing him that I wasn’t an bandit trying to lead him to an ambush.

So soon enough we were on the road, and I was left to my thoughts while the horse pulling the cart did the leg work for us.

Spoiler: Omen

The trip till the keep was uneventful, and soon we were inside it, the keep is big and there were lots of people inside, but somehow that place gave me the chills so I didn’t really want to stay there, so I said farewell for the merchant and his guards, bought some food and other things and left the keep as soon as I could.


Once more on the road but this time walking on my own, the road was good and with merchants moving here with a good frequency it was quite safe too, so I managed to cover quite a lot of ground while enjoying my wonderful jerky!

What? hard and unsavoury? only if you have weak human teeth~! for me its just a bit chewy tasty food which I can enjoy while walking! jerky is the ultimate traveling food! all bless jerkys!


While I was walking and enjoying the greatness of my food the sun started to fall and I had to start to prepare camp, while going around searching for twigs to start a fire I felt an interesting sweet scent with a hint of freshness like mint…


...following the sent through the high grass I reach a small clearing with just an wilting flower at its middle… slowly getting closer I saw its petals whose color were a purple so deep that they were almost black, and then it hit me, the plant wasn’t wilting a all!, it was just an Moonfollower a kind of unusual plant similar to an sunflower, which also had the ability to change the direction its flower was facing, but as its name says, instead of the sun the moonfollower would move to face moon because for some reason it used moonlight to grow, and as it was still day time it was facing downwards with its petals closed giving the impression of an wilting flower!


As I entered the clearing I crouched down and put my hands together in a praying position and gave an small prayed to the moon, well… don’t ask me why but that IS the right proceedings when dealing with an Moonfollower, it has something to do with moor or cold spirit and some other convoluted things which I didn’t really paid attention to when reading about them, but better safe than sorry right?

after giving my prayer I slowly walked till the plant, gently touched its petals, the petals slowly started to move as I caressed it, and soon a seed appeared between it's petals, I carefully used my fingers to pick the seed and as soon as I did it the petals closed again and I went back to my camp.



I passed the night enjoying the warmth of my bonfire and admiring the seed, while Moonfollowers are rare plants it's still considered a good omen to find one and as I picked a seed I could plant it later!... Well… if I ever get an house…

Spoiler: The Forest

When the sun rised I had already got my things up and was walking on the road again, I am an early riser and need way less light to see things so there is no need to wait for the sun.


Later during the day I arrived at the forest and I instantly got tensed up and alert, just a few meters after I got into it I started to feel the smell of an wolf, faint and old but it still means that this place may be dangerous…


… I walked about 2 more hours and the smell just got stronger and fresher… I sighted as I left the road and entered the forest itself… I did bought food but I didn't exactly had enough money to buy enough food for the trip so I would have to hunt something, but there is a wolf here, and the smell tells me it's an lone one… it probably lost it's pack or was exiled from it, so it's probably will try to hunt easier prey or even humans which are traveling alone on the road… and I damn look like a human traveling alone *sigh*...


As I walk on the forest I take in the abundance of scents, while not as many as an city the forest is also full of scents, but unlike the cities where all the smells are packed together and fighting trying to overwhelm each other, here on the forest there is the much needed space between each smell to turn it from an disorienting thing to an very calming.


I walked for a long time while following the wolf's trail, I don't need to worry about ever losing myself in a forest, for me an forest is much easier to navigate than a city each plant, each tree has its own scent, for example the big oak I was passing through had an light scent of mold mixed in, the tall and younger tree s bit ahead, had the scent of termite and probably had quite a few hollowed parts, and I didn't even need to look behind it to know that there was an rabbit path behind the tree as I could easily smell the faint traces of smell that the rabbits left whenever their feet hit the ground or their fur touched the surrounding plants, for me the forest far more landmarks than any human road could ever dream of having.


And as such I soon reach the point where the wolf scent was stronger and much fresher, I didn't tried to hide as I walked normally, even with a trail it would take too long to find an hidden wolf, so it would be much easier for me if he found me instead, and that he did, I heard the soft sounds of his paws hitting the forest floor just moments before I saw it's eyes between the tree, the wolf was carefully wading it's way till me and I looked directly at it's eyes.


The wolf growled trying to intimidate me, and he was doing an awful job at it as I had to hold back my laugh, in his eyes I am just an human but that couldn't be farther than the truth, but then I saw it in his eyes… the desperation brought by hunger and the smirk at my lips disappeared… I know how much pain and fear hunger brings… I know that he will not back down…


My body tensed up in preparation waiting for his move, we watched each other's eyes for a moment which looked like hours till we moved together running against each other at the same moment, but soon my legs stopped themselves and I twisted my body sending a punch downward… not expecting my sudden pause the wolf had missed it's timing, its punce too low to reach my neck, and it's starting point too far to safely reach me, he couldn't do anything to avoid my steel clad fist which hit his head with the force of an mace.


The wolf barely hit the ground and my hand was already grabbing it's head's fur, I pulled it towards me while my knee hit it's jaw breaking it, I kneed it twice more before throwing it back against the forest's ground effectively stunning it, before it could get it's bearings I was already saddled on top of it putting all my strength to pressure it's neck till I heard a loud *creack!* Indicating that it's neck was broken…


...I took deep breaths trying to calm myself… my blood was boiling with the desire to fight but I didn't had time for it right now… I had an camp to prepare and an wolf's worth of materials to deal with….



*Thud*

Later when the sun had already set *thud* I was resting on top of *thud* my new wolf fur while *thud* hitting the wolf meat with my reinforced gloves to soften the meat a bit, sure wolf meat isn't exactly tasty, but it's much better than rotten food and dirty which I had to eat when I was young… and well I didn't had just wolf meet here…

Putting the meat inside a bow and dropping some ale inside to give an extra taste and to soften to meat furthen, I thought about the seasoning I had found while preparing the camp.

The wolf's fat will be used to fry the wild onions that I found and the meat, then I will put in the carrots and chives which were growing not far from here, and finally the water and the dried herbs I found before will finish my soup~

The tasty food made my hum happily~

Spoiler: Arrival

At morning I ate some more meat, stored the wolf's teeth and fur and started my trip again, I walked and walked and walked, the day was almost ending when I finally reached the border of the swamp, but I decided to not enter it yet, the day was going to darken soon and I had to search for the appropriate place to enter the swamp, so I just followed it's border while searching for some plants and branches…


...when I found the river it was already dark so I set camp, luckily between the nuts and flowers i had gotten, I collected an wild torch, an plant that look like an cattail but is very easy to lit on fire and burns slowly, very handy if can give my option!


Also between the catch was an cirsium multcore, a swamp plant which can be used as catalyst for potions, it's not worth much cause there are other plants which can do the same but it's helpful since I need it for potions I pretend to order later…

Spoiler: The Search

With the night’s gone and the sun rising I walked till the border of the swamp, for here on it would be the trick part of this little trip, I can’t fight well on the water so I needed to travel through places where the ground was as dry as possible, but my target live in the water so I my best bet was to follow the river and the flooded parts of the swamp.

sighing with resignations I stepped closer to the part of the river bed which had dense amount of trees, with my steel clad fingers and the spikes on my boots it was really easy to climb up the tall tree, once on top of it, I carefully tested its branches to see which one could support me, and then proceeded to jump to the next tree.
It was a tiring and difficult method of moving through the swamp, but I couldn’t exactly afford to move away from the river if I had any hope to find that croc this week, my only relief is that the trees are old and sturdy,and my body is strong enough to easily lift my own eight whenever I miss calculated the jump and ended up hanging with only one arm as support….

As time passed I found out that inside the swamp the river branched into many smaller ones, and even some many lakes, I tried to check as many of them as I could but soon I understood that I would never reach anywhere if I just blindly searched them one by one…


While I had climbed down and walked whenever there was dry land, by that time I was dead tired, I don't regret doing through the treetops since I avoided having to deal with all predators I found till now, but I simply had to rest…


...I was on top of a tree with no signs of a good patch of dry land anywhere closer and since I like to be dry, I decided to do what I had done all day long, stay on trees, I found the closest big tree, got on it, tied myself on it's sturdy branches and slept on it with my wolf fur as blanket…

Spoiler: The White One

I woke up broken… really all of my body was aching but I at least I was still dry and warm, so I suppressed tell sigh and started to travel again, my goal for the day was to find any sign of Crocs and follow them.



Sure Crocs aren't exactly beings which live in packs but they are attracted to places with prey, and if there is enough prey there probably will be more of them there.


After some time I found them in one of the bigger branches of the river, the place looked like it was big enough to have a lot of fish, but it was further ahead that I got sight of an whitehead lazing around on the water, it was on a shallower part of the river which looked like that it was used by bigger animals to travel from one side of the swamp to the other.


My body tensed up as I started to think how i could attract it outside the water to kill it, but then I remembered the request of that woman back at the cult guild, she wanted eggs from an strong reptil… hmm… well I didn't knew much about the reproduction cycle of the Crocs around this part, but in any case I would lose at most a day, and if it in deed had eggs I would gain some extra coins, not to mention that since Crocs place their eggs on dry ground I would gain a good chance to ambush it!


And so I waited and followed the croc all day and night long, it was specifically tricky thing to do during the night, but I had memorised it's scent so even if I followed from behind I could still catch up with it later…


And after a long long night, a bit after the sun rise we arrived at it's nest… and fuck! Thank the gods I didn't tried to rush ahead to fight it!

I didn't noticed it while she was on water but that shit must I have had at least 8 or 9 meters! The damn quest didn't mentioned that the damn croc was this absurdly big! It could probably eat a whole human with just one bite…


Damn… it won't be going down without an ambush… so I just wait on top of my tree and observe the behemoth sleeping far away… thankfully it does have eggs so I know it will come back here later…


The day pass slowly as I was bored and I take a small nap on my treetop, when the sun started to lower the white behemoth woke up and went to the river. When the croc was so far that I couldn’t even see it anymore, I dropped down my tree and slipped closer to his nest, I carefully dig its eggs from the grasps of earth and sand, and carefully put them inside my bag, the I cover the next with dirt again and climb a tree which have an thick limb right above the nest. I secure myself into it and start to sleep again.

Spoiler: Do or Die

The next day it was exactly as I expected, the croc came back, so I waited till it started to sleep, to be sincere I don’t think I can’t win a fight against this thing without a proper weapon or expending resources which are much more expensive than what I will gain from this quest… but as the quest was about bringing its hide back and not about its eggs, I don’t have much choice here… I will just need to make sure it doesn’t end up in a fight.

When the croc started to sleep, I remove my bag from my back and tie it safely on the tree, then I carefully climbed the thick branch which was right above its head trying to make as little noise as possible, I unsheath my old dagger and take a deep breath, my eyes focus and adrenaline start to pump from whin me.

I throw my dagger with all my strength aiming for its spine, unfortunately due the weird position I was holding into the branch, my aim was a bit off, the dagger hit its neck, but the thick scales and muscles prevented it to go deep enough to cause lethal damage.


*Roar!*
The beast roar with rage and swings its tail around trying to hit its still hiding assaulter.
unfortunately for me I didn’t have any other weapon and I feared that with the way it was moving the dagger would dislodge from its position and I would miss my chance to put on a deeper wound, so acting at almost pure instinct I jumped down the tree towards the crocs back, my left feet aiming for the dagger lodged on its neck and my left one for its head.


As my feet hit their targets, the dagger plunges deeply inside it’s neck leaving out only half of its handle out, The strong impact momentarily stunned the beast, and the spikes on my boots bite into its hide deep enough to give me only an semblance of equilibrium, but that was enough to let me jump out of its back and roll into the ground safely, just in time to see the behemoth’s tail pass right above my head and hit a nearby tree, breaking of of chunk of its wood and bark so big that it was about the width of my waist…

I didn’t even need to think before jump on my feets and running the hell out of there, I could feel the beast’s steps shaking the earth beneath my feets, and I could hear its half gurgling howls right behind my back, as I ran with my all making my way between the tree!

I saw a fallen tree not far, and though that I could hinder the creature for a bit, so I ran into its direction, I could almost feel the behemoth’s breath when I got closer to the tree and without stopping even a moment I vaulted above it.

While I was in the air, I could catch a glimpse of the beast opening its mouth and biting the space I was just a second ago, the crocs teeth’s hit the fallen tree with the strength of a ogre, and the tree’s trunk splintered and broke almost in half with the behemoth’s bite, I didn’t looked back as I reach the ground I just ran, as the white beast roared in pain, I have no doubt it was because the splintered wood impaling the insides of its mouth. I ran and ran till I saw a very large tree which I thought that the croc would not be able to break, I jumped into it and I must admit that I have never climbed a tree so fastly in my whole life!

Safely on top of the tree, I watch the croc coming this way, the beast was slower and it was having difficult to move, that only got more and more evident as the beast approached the tree… the dagger inside its neck was biting its flesh whenever it moved, making the wound larger, and it was starting to drown into its own blood… it may be strong and sturdy but by now I just need to wait, and make sure I would not die while being caught in one of its swings, something that this tree will surely help me doing.



One hour and half, that was how long the white croc took to finally succumb to its wounds… the beast was way more sturdy that I have it credit for, so I gingerly climbed down the tree, making sure that I was in a position good enough to react in case the beast wasn’t dead yet, I slowly reach to it, making sure that the beast was dead, I let myself have a sigh of relief and my body relaxed, all the tension of the one hour and forty minutes since I had started my ambush suddenly left me, and I dropped down besides the croc.

I left myself rest for about a minutes, and then I looked around trying to think just how exactly I would skin and butch this thing….

Spoiler: Butchers Plight

….hours later and a lot of sweat, turns out that dealing with the dead croc was much worse than killing it… I had to tie its tail with a lot and I mean a LOT of vines, climb the big tree and pull it up, when I finally managed to hand that thing I was already dead tired, but the work was just starting… First I removed its eyes, then I had to skin it carefully since the main part of the job was to get its hide, after that, getting all the bloody organs out and finally starting to cut the meat out, oh and that meat was totally worth it!

Croc meat is the best! 12/10!

Anyway, then I collected as much meat as I could and I also got come of its bones including its skull.
I used some vines and bones as frame and its rolled leather as padding to make an extension for my bag so I could carry everything.
When I finished it was already morning, so I literally passed an entire day working on dealing with the beast’s corpse... after getting everything and making sure that I was not forgetting anything like its claws and teeths I left.
I need to get back before the quest time limit after all!

@AliceShiki

Spoiler: Loots and notes

1 - Wolf Fur
1 - Wolf Fang Necklace
1 - Moonfollower Seed
3 - Wild Torches Plants
5 - cirsium multcore
6 - White Crocs Bones
4 - White Croc's Eggs
a lot of Yummy Croc Meat

 

"Ah. I see the requester somehow overestimated the size. That's better for everyone involved, it's docile and not big enough to accidentally cause trouble, yes? Your reward, seventeen large coppers and eight guild points."

 

Spoiler: Reports

"Anytime now..."

A gourd sat on his arcane platform, watching the wide grassland below for the third day now. He had supplies for longer but it wasn't comfortable sitting there with the sun beating down on him.

As if hearing his plight, a sky-blue portal opened right in the middle of the grassland. It was smack dab obvious with all the green around, but the elevation means it's difficult to spot from the ground.

Whistling, the gourd hopped off and directed his plunge straight to the portal.

Once he's in, several application of his Brands corrected his direction and slowed his descent before he sat at a new platform. Looking around, he found himself overseeing a primeval jungle with massive growths and even more massive animals. There were yaks the size of a barn lazily munching on grass as tall as bamboos, alligator that dwarved carrack dragging an equally large zebra into the water, all manners of overgrown lizard...

"Investigation time, I suppose. Undersight."

The inner working of the magic unveiled themselves, glowing brightly as they circulated around the small world. And small indeed, it looked endless at first but the whole place can't be larger than, say, the haunted forest. The blue he assumed to be sky was actually a boundary surrounding the whole place.

The scale of this bubble world's creatures was due to the thick mana suffusing it, almost as much as Simetra's dungeon but it weaved through the whole world instead of being directed by some unseen entity deep inside the dungeon.

There were some lines that seemed to naturally intersect and coincidentally overlapped the whole place with Ternus at a set interval. The place it appeared was a major inconvenience to reach, almost exactly vertical but tilted sideway which explained why he was flung sideways when he entered the portal. There were tall trees growing underneath, basically putting the portal a stone's throw away from the oversized avians nesting there. Plus, there's no man-made structure anywhere and the thing looked like it could be unraveled by the slightest nudge of magic at the right place. Way too sloppy and careless for something made with a purpose, but a beautiful set of coincidence for something forming naturally.

"I guess it's a quest complete. But first thing first..."

Four days later, a rather haggard gourd popped out of the portal. He carried a large sack filled with assortment of plundered eggs, a fat pheasant almost as large of himself, and a smaller sack of... totay normal plant. It have about seven leaves, oval with frazzled end, and almost as large as his own forearm. Yep, totally normal plant.

Spoiler: Notes

-Portal was natural occurence that connect to a buble dimension.
-Gourd brought a bunch of lizard, crocodile, and bird egg as souvenirs.
-And a really fat giant pheasant.
-Also bring some interesting plant. Totally got nothing to do with recreation.

@AliceShiki

 

Grendel hurriedly come in and handed his report,
"*pant* I hope...*pant* I'm not too...*pant* too late. That damn merchant's rant is just endless!"

Spoiler: Report

After getting the quest approval from the guild and the necessary information from Forsch, Grendel quickly set out and spend his time prowling the woods south of Nagrand, keeping watch on the roads between lakeside village and the mountain range for bandits while paying extra attention around the place where Forsch’s caravan was ambushed.

After a week, Grendel finally managed to catch on the bandits’ trail as one night, one of Uzuki’s crow spotted a strange old manor on the southeastern side of Nagrand. It managed to spot one of the bandits which matched the description given by the caravanners walking around the vicinity of the manor before entering it. Now knowing the bandits’ hideout, Grendel headed there on the next morning to check it out.

***

“Wow, it was worse than I thought,” Grendel said in amazement, as he finally managed to see the manor from a close distance.

Now that he saw it in person, the manor was indeed worn-down. Very much so, in fact. The garden was messy and overgrown with weeds as it hadn’t been attended to in a long time and the walls were dilapidated, as various cracks and moss can be found throughout the building. The perimeter walls were even worse, with some of them already crumbling away, exposing numerous holes and pathways.

Despite the manor’s state of disrepair, Grendel managed to spot perhaps the most alien thing that one can find in it: a freshly built wooden makeshift stable and a carriage parked next to it.

“Guess we were right. So? What do you wanna do?” Uzuki asked as he materialized on Grendel’s shoulder.

“Let’s scout them first. Hopefully there’ll be –, ” Grendel didn’t manage to finish his sentence, as suddenly a loud scream came from inside the manor.

Although startled from the scream, Grendel and Uzuki regained their bearing just as fast, and rushed inside the manor. On the entrance, Grendel bumped into a running man, whom upon seeing Grendel, screamed and tried to run once again, this time from Grendel.

“Hey! Wait! Are you the one who screamed before? Why are you running away!?” Grendel shouted as he stretched his hand towards the man, grabbing his arm at the last second, causing him to fall down from the momentum.

The man, now on the ground, stared at Grendel for a second before his pale face become even paler, and shrieked, “Hiii! Please don’t kill me! Anything but that!”

Realizing the man was hysteric, Grendel tried to answer as calmly as he could, though he couldn’t hide the impatience in his voice, “I won’t if you don’t give me a reason to. Can you first tell me who are you?” while pulling up the man to stand up.

“And why did you run out screaming like that?” Uzuki added.

Upon realizing the imposing oni in front him might not mean any harm, the man stared alternately at Grendel and Uzuki for a few seconds, before opening his mouth and answered in a trembling voice, “M-my name’s Jore. I-I’m well, a farmer. I screamed because suddenly I woke up here, in an unknown place, with corpses around me. I-i-it just shocked me so much that I screamed and just started running away…”

Hearing Jore’s answer, Grendel knitted his eyebrows, ‘A farmer? Why would a farmer be sleeping inside a bandit’s hideout? A hostage? But then why isn’t he restrained?’

“Why would a farmer sleeps unrestrained inside a bandit’s hideout? Were you their accomplice?” Uzuki voiced the question just as Grendel was thinking about it

“EH? Bandit’s hideout? Here?” Jore replied Uzuki’s question confusedly.

Seeing the confusion, Grendel pushed the strangeness of it to the back of his mind and quickly interjected with an out-of-place greeting, “Well, anyway, I’m Grendel, an adventurer. Nice to meet you, Jore.”

“Huh? Oh, uh, nice to meet you too, I guess?”

“You see, I’m currently tasked to deal with some bandits, and I’m sorry to ask this from you, but can you take me to the room you woke up? I need to check if they are the bandits I’m looking for.”

“And don’t worry! I promise to protect you until we get back to the city!” Grendel hastily added as he saw Jore slowly struck with fear again.

After thinking about it for a few second, Jore finally agreed and started leading them inside the manor, with Grendel and Uzuki following him.

Some moments later, Jore called out timidly to Grendel as he turned around, “Um, we’re here, mister Grendel. I’ll just stay out here, if you don’t mind. I don’t think I can stomach seeing those.”

“Thanks, Jore,” Grendel thanked Jore before entering the large room. It seemed to be a dining hall, as it was quite large with a large table – or what remains of it, in the center of the room. Around it, there’s a barrel placed on a corner of the room, and at around a dozen corpses strewn about near it.

On closer inspection, Grendel found that the corpses were indeed the bandit group that stole Forsch’s booze, proven by the insignia they’re wearing somewhere on their body. As Grendel did not find any wounds on the corpses, He asked Uzuki to check if they might be cursed, which they turned out to be.

“Yeah, I can feel a faint dark elemental energy from the bodies, along with that booze,” Uzuki explained, turning his head towards the barrel.

“So the legendary booze is cursed? Guess that’s where legend part comes from, huh? Check this out, Uzuki. ‘Gambrine Booze. A sip to forget your troubles forever.’ That’s quite the claim they got there.” Grendel said while closing off the barrel with a lid he found on the floor.

Finished with the room inspection, Grendel spent some more time checking around the manor rooms, upon which he found the bandits’ makeshift armory, stored together with a few of their similar-natured loots as well.

After cremating the corpses and loading the loots to the carriage outside the manor, Grendel and Jore returned to Nagrand.

Spoiler: Note

- Returned the Legendary (cursed) booze to Forsch (which he didn't take it too well and started a super long rant)
- Rescued a strange farmer(?), Jore, from the bandit hideout
- Obtained loot:

• rusty chainmail x3
• iron chainmail x2
• bronze chainmail x2
  
• bronze short sword x4
• bronze daggers x5
• wooden bow x2
• a pair of katana

@Lenaia

 

Task: Collect Eye of The Great Tiger Lordvoyg
Requester: Sword Saint (Self-proclaimed) Kyre
Quest Rank: D-rank
Rewards: 19 Large Copper Coins
Description: After many battles over the course of the last decade (the guild assumes he is talking about a few days), Lordvoyg finally got the best of me, biting my hand off and carrying it with him as his trophy... This cannot stand be, if it has my hand, I deserve its eye as my own trophy! Go to the region near Simetra's Dungeon and defeat the Giant Tiger Lordvoyg in battle and bring me his eye!
* The guild assumes that by giant he means a tiger of at most 2m tall, as no recent reports came of anything bigger than that in the region... It's still a fairly dangerous foe however, so be wary.

Spoiler: The Eye of the Tiger Quest

Not knowing what to expect from this quest, Zinc decided to bring all of his weapons as well as his medical equipment. According to the reports, the two-meter tall giant tiger should reside somewhere around the Simetra’s Dungeon, perhaps an escapee of the dungeon itself. The self-proclaimed Sword Saint – Kyre – lost his hand to the foul beast without dealing much damage in return. Kind of a disappointment from this “sword saint”.

Anyways, back to the task. Sword Saint Kyre tasked the guild to find an adventurer or a party of adventurers who would be willing to venture forth, defeat the great tiger – Lordvoyg, and retrieve its eye as proof. Now, the task doesn’t specifically mention killing the giant tiger so hopefully Zinc would be able to obtain the eye peacefully? Probably not. Once the quest has been approved, the doctor headed to the map room to understand the general terrain near Simetra’s Dungeon.

The Arcane Dungeon of Simetra – located south of the continent of Nylla – was a hotspot of magical energy. The dungeon itself was filled to the brim with such energy. Now that he thought about it, perhaps Lordvoyg wasn’t really an escapee of the dungeon, but rather a lucky animal blessed with the magical leakage from the dungeon, which transformed what was once an ordinary tiger into the monstrosity it was now. Back to looking at the map of Nylla, Zinc hypothesized that Lordvoyg’s residence was most likely somewhere south of the dungeon near a small stream. No matter how strong a creature was, it could not survive without a source of water. Zinc placed the tiger’s residence somewhere along the path between the dungeon and the stream…a roughly 30-kilometer diameter worth of area to cover.

Taking along a rented horse as well as Silver and Cerium, Zinc headed towards Simetra’s Dungeon. It took them roughly six days with small breaks in between. Once Zinc arrived on the seventh day, the doctor dismounted and tied the horse to a nearby tree. Zinc decided to go on foot for the remainder of the path. After taking nearly another day of travels, Zinc finally saw a large cave in the distant woods near a small, clear stream. Just as Zinc decided to approach the mouth of the cave quietly, a roar exploded out, causing Zinc to flinch. Impossible! The great tiger shouldn’t have discovered him so soon!

With abated breath, Zinc brought out his Amputation Knife and held it close to his body. Once Lordvoyg sprang out of the cave, the doctor would engage immediately. Suddenly, a large figure pranced out of the cave and sped towards the stream. The giant tiger splashed its head into the stream, submerging its face completely. With a powerful roar that even Zinc could hear above the water, the tiger monster shook its head painfully. Through his years of observing his master at work and training, Zinc was able to deduce that something was wrong with the giant tiger's face or more specifically...its eyes.

After a long five minutes, the tiger finally calmed down. It stood up weakly and headed towards its cave when suddenly, its ears perked up. With a flash of its eyes, a powerful aura of intimidation flooded the vicinity, affecting even Zinc. This form of intimidation…it was similar to Zinc’s Tiger Aura but purer and more intense. Not wanting to give in to the intimidation, Zinc cast his own form of Tiger Aura. Though it didn’t do much, Zinc was at least able to surprise the giant tiger, allowing it to lessen the bloodlust.

You know Tiger Aura?

A deep voice projected into Zinc’s head almost causing him to falter. “Who’s there? Who’s in my head?”

Me you imbecile. The giant tiger flashed a toothy grin. Aren't you looking at me?

The only thing Zinc was staring at right this moment was the giant tiger. "Y-You can speak telepathically?"

Yes. Speak, mortal human, what are you doing here and what do you want?

"Um...I was just passing by. What's wrong with you? I'm a doctor, maybe I can help."

Passing by? Do you take me for a fool? You have the same smell as that idiot I disarmed a few days ago. You come from the same place! Speak! Tell me why you are really here or I’ll kill you and eat you for an afternoon snack!

“My name is Zinc and I’m an adventurer based in the town of Nagrand. The idiot you disarmed a few days ago had issued a quest for revenge.”

Hahaha! That self-proclaimed sword saint couldn’t defeat me and now wanted others to do his dirty work? Pathetic! So, I assume you are here because of that quest? Are you here to slay me?

“At first, yes. But, now I’m not going to.” Zinc replied as he eyed the tiger’s disproportionate glare.

Why? You scared? No matter what you say, I will not let you go.

“What about if I say I can cure your migraine.”

What migr-! ROOAAARRR!!

The giant tiger screamed in pain as its head began to throb irregularly once more. Lordvoyg rushed to the cool stream and plunged its head into the waters. The icy caress of the running water helped ease the pain that erupted from the giant tiger’s temples. After a few minutes of screaming and whimpering, the giant tiger raised its head out of the water and peered at the dwelf.

You really can help me?

“Yes.” Zinc nodded but a look of hesitation remained on his face. “However, you might not like it.”

Tell me! As long as I can rid me of this misery, I will do anything.

“I will need to take one of your eyes.”

WHAT? How dare you! You dare to play tricks on me?

“WAIT! Wait! Hear me out! Hear me out!” Zinc dodged the fierce swipe Lordvoyg threw at the dwelf out of anger. “Haven’t you noticed that one of your eyes are larger than the other?”

This one sentence managed to stop the giant tiger from its tracks. It glared at Zinc and grunted. Keep going. I’m listening.

“The bulging of your eye coupled with the increase in headaches and nausea…those all lead to signs of an eye tumor.”

Tumor?

“Yes, tumors are lumps of harmful flesh that grew out of control. These tumors will drain your lifeforce and the only way to treat them is to remove them. Since your tumor is located in your eye…you should understand what that means.”

No! How am I supposed to hunt if I lost an eye? What will the others say about me? Think of something else or I’ll kill you where you stand!

“There is no other method. If you don’t remove it, the tumor will continue to grow. Soon, you will become blind in that eye. After growing to a certain point, the tumor will cause the eye to explode. When that happens, who knows what other damage you might incur from it. Are you willing to risk that? Either way, you will lose your eye. So…what’s it going to be?” Zinc explained calmly as he looked at the giant tiger sternly.

This! Fine! You win! Take this wretched tumor out of me! Lordvoyg roared as it was just about to refute Zinc’s argument when another burst of pain coursed through its body.

“Then, let’s begin.” Zinc replied as he dropped his bag and began to dig through some medical supplies.

Hours later….

After putting the tiger into an alcoholic coma, Zinc dissected and removed the cancerous eyeball. Wiping it clean, he stored the eyeball in his bag and fed the giant tiger some hangover soup made from fresh mint he had foraged around the forest. As Lordvoyg shook itself awake, it glanced about as it tried to adjust with one eye.

Although Lordvoyg lost one eye, the giant tiger was still able to hunt some prey albeit some decreases in power. Luckily, there was some good news. The giant tiger’s head stopped hurting and it was able to look at its surroundings with more clarity.

Thank you, mortal.

“No problem. Happy to help. You helped me as well.” Zinc nodded as he cleaned his equipment.

As thanks, you can have this. Lordvoyg lifted a claw to its chest and pierced its chest slightly, drawing blood.

Before Zinc could respond, the giant tiger pierced the bloody claw into the doctor. “What the fuck!”

Zinc’s eyes began to blur as he fell over. The last thing he saw was Lordvoyg sticking the claw back into its chest. The last thing he heard before his mind fell into unconsciousness….

This mark of mine will help you in the future. All my descendants will come to your aid. From now on…we are brothers.

*****​

Zinc woke up with a start and found himself lying by a tree on the outskirts of the town. His head rang like a bell as he tried to grasp what had happened earlier. Recalling Lordvoyg’s claw piercing his chest, he checked his body. The wound had healed completely, leaving behind a faint scar. With a confused grimace, Zinc headed back to the guild to submit the tiger’s eye.

@AliceShiki

 

"Cursed booze. Been a while since I heard about one of those." The construct shrugged. "Well, it's not our problem, yes? Your reward, seven large coppers and four guild points. Do take care!"

((Generally do limit your extra income to not exceed double the quest reward. It breaks progression, you see.))

 

Spoiler: Report

[Oldspice Village… have I come here before? For a quest about… a talking bear or something?]

[Certainly not, that was New Spice Village.]

[...What’s the difference?]

Valuren is spending his time walking to the Northeast of Nagrand, where the Oldspice Village can be located. Along the possibly longer walks than the usual grappling around, he wondered to himself about taking this quest was safe enough for someone with an injury, like him.

Sighing at the quest form before putting it back into his pouch,

[Should’ve slept more…]

[At least~, you don’t have to wake up to Mr. Karma’s extremely large kills, can’t believe how he caught a deer with just that sword of his…]

[Y-Yeah…]

He then remembered something back in the Guild, there was another quest at the board that made him interested in the first place.

[Do you know where that details come from, Veri?]

[Nope.]

[Ah, right. You were sleeping by the time I take this quest…]

Sighing and looking down on the dirt road, he continued on walking Northeast.


*******


Valuren stopped on his tracks after noticing someone’s foot poking into his line of sights It was one of the guards of the village. He also realises that he had arrived to the village, he looks up to see the guard’s eyes with a rather concerned expression.

The guard spoke,

“You’re the adventurer from the Guild?”

Valuren was quiet for a minute before slapping himself awake, making himself more aware of the situation.

Nodding at the guard, he goes,

“Yes, on the regard of this particular quest, sir.”

The guard then inspects Valuren’s body, finding his slinged right arm,

“Are you sure, you’ll be fine? The ogre will hit you away if you get too close… I guess.”

“I guess?”, Valuren scoffed, he then shaking his head to return back to normal.

“Oops, my casual side got out.”

[Talking in Common are way easier, no one would pay any minds to my markings at all. I guess that’s because that I am an Adventurer now, huh. Back home, going to school with these markings not only causing others to notice it, it also attracts other Marked’s users to attack me. Wearing those fake tattoo wrappings helped a lot, teachers don’t really care if you’re wearing such wrappings, as long as you didn’t cause any other troubles while wearing it.]

“O-Okay… then. By the way, how didn’t you notice him earlier?”

“Eh?”

“The ogre in question… is just right behind you.”

Valuren turns around and finds the blue ogre sitting there, sulking, “Oh.”


*******


Valuren takes out the quest form again, reading what’s up with the ogre sitting in the middle of the road.

[Sulking, huh. Is he lost, is he upset, did someone died?]

Cruel thoughts, but that’s what Valuren would think at the moment.

Valuren looks behind him, seeing the guard lifting a thumbs up towards him. He turned back and takes a deep calming breath before going to the ogre.
Comparing to their heights, even when the ogre is sitting down, he’s almost the same height as Valuren standing. He managed to reach the ogre’s head with his left hand, patting him gently from behind.

“What’s wrong?”, he asked the ogre.

No response,

“What’s wrong?”

Again, no response.

Valuren tries again, “It’ll be okay, friend. You can tell me, what’s wrong?”

“Grr…”

Mid-patting and being startled by the ogre growling, Valuren tried to jump as far away as possible but slipped - falling on the ground behind him.

“T-T-That spooked me…”

The ogre finally turned around, looking at him with it’s depressed dark blue eyes. Valuren quickly lifts himself up, sitting right in front of the ogre, facing him with a bright smile.

“Hi, friend!”

“...Hello… human friend…”

“What’s wrong, friend?”, asked Valuren.

”Oooo…”, the ogre averts his sad gaze away from him.

[HIS EXPRESSION ARE SO DAMN SAD!!! I’m crying!!~]

[You’re laughing, shut up!]

Valuren scoots forward, placing his left hand on the ogre’s lap, with a customer service smile and eyes closed,

“It’s okay, I won’t laugh, friend.”

[You won’t laugh?!~~]

[SHUT UP VERI!!]

Veri continues to laugh out loud inside of Valuren’s mind, despite having to endure the laughter from catching him. He was rather pleased that Veri didn’t laugh externally, or this ogre will kill him right then and there.

“Oooo…”

Valuren looks up to see the ogre looking down on the ground still, he slowly pats the ogre’s hand as he hears,

“Me… sad… me… got… rejected…”


…


…


…


[What the actual fuck, is that it?]

[AHAHA!! You swore!!~~]

Valuren clears his throat and continue patting the ogre’s hand,

“O-Oh… I’m sorry for you, dear friend.”

“Human friend…”

The ogre immediately jumped on Valuren, hugging him ever so tightly.

“Oooo… me… say… thank you…”

“U-Uhrm… f-f-friend…! Y-You’re crushing me…!!”

The blue ogre releases him from the big hug, Valuren takes a deep breath after holding his right arm, still smiling at the ogre.

“Oh, friend! People living around here are afraid of you, can you kindly leave, dear friend?”, asked Valuren again, the ogre nodding with a refreshed expression.

“Me… understood. Human friend… so… kind.”

“Thanks!”, Valuren decided to hug him, patting his sides as he could not reach for his back and walks back to smile at the ogre.


*******


The blue ogre waves his hands while walking away into the distance, the ogre shouted in a calmer tone,

“Human friend… Farewell!”

Valuren waves back, smiling at him, “You too, have safe journey~!”

Right after the ogre leaves his line of sight, Valuren holds his neck, stroking it a bit before hearing someone running behind him.

It was the guard from before, he was watching the whole exchange,

”H-How.”

”Hm?”, tilted head Valuren strikes again.

”N-Never mind… thank you… I guess.”

”I guess?”, Valuren smiles after having Veri answering the guard back with the same words.

”I mean, thank you… ogre-friendly adventurer.”

He leaves the village shortly after, and now dealing with Veri’s laughter and repeating ‘ogre-friendly adventurer’ at him on the way back to the Guild.

Valuren sighs in huge relief as he delivers his report to the receptionist,
“Back, ogre-san left.”

@AliceShiki
((I misread the quest details at one point~.))

 

Spoiler: SPIKES!

Spoiler: first part

"You look like an ill-match for Soren... But who am I to say? You accepted my request, that means you're confident of your strength, yes?"

The client, Leila, gave her impression towards Dantia as such. Certainly Dantia looked like a slender girl but she always has her two swords on her waist, announcing to everyone that she's a combatant. Her smooth gesture and well toned muscle added weight to the cause.

"Yes! I do have a fair share of fights and somehow my training back in my place really helped me with practical combats!"
Dantia claimed.
"But what do you mean by ill-matched?"

"Well... You don't seem like using magically enchanted outfit. And that big hole... Don't you want at least looking better? You're a cute girl for goodness sake!"

As Leila said, Dantia has no other clothes and she didn't want to spend money on unnecessary things as she has been saving for her trip back home. She still wore her damaged tunic from her last battle where she was close to death.

"Ehehe~" awkwardly chuckled, "I need money so I save. But perhaps I'll buy a new clothes after this?" Said Dantia but she didn't really think about it.

"Oh well, your money your choice. But it's really a waste for you to not taking care of your looks. We can go shopping together if you want, but for now we have work."

Both of them were chatting in the middle of their way to the church of Raldtorias where Leila made appointment with Soren, the high priest.

"But you said about a duel with Soren. And we're at a church? Is he a cleric with martial arts skills?" Asked Dantia.

"Well... Look for yourself. You'll also understand why I said that you're ill-matched against Soren." Leila answered while opening the door to the church, "wait here while I was call him."

After waiting for a while, Leila came out together with "Holy fuck!?" Dantia's swear.

A stature as tall as mountain giants, body fully covered by black metal, armor eerily decorated by spikes.

"How in the world is this man a cleric for a church!?" Dantia screamed. At that reaction Leila laughed hard and answered,
"You're not from here huh? Well so sorry I should've known that! Anyways, this is Soren and I need you to fight him. I'll witness the entirety of your fight like we agreed~"

While Dantia was still dazed, Soren came to her. His footsteps were strangely light and despite the complicated looking armor he didn't make as much noise as it should.

"Good day. I am the head priest of Nagrand's Raldtorias Church, Soren."
Soren took off his right gauntlet, showing a big rugged hand. Realized that he was going to ask for a handshake, Dantia quickly fixed her posture and greeted back while extending her own hand.
"Dantia, a newbie adventurer. Pleased to meet you!"

A brief handshake, but as short time as it was, Soren understood things.

"Small hands, but strong and well trained. There seems to be something bothering you, but that is not my concern. Now prepare yourself."

Dantia flinched. 'something bothering me?' she thought. But she shook off that feeling and quickly prepared her stance.

With the greetings done and both fighters ready, they naturally invited bypassing people to be interested. Slowly more people stopped their tracks and gathered to be viewers of the spectacle. Leila made the crowd in order as her interest aligned with them.

Soren unseathed his huge sword and pointed it to Dantia.
"Don't hold back. Leila wants the fight to inspire her for her next work: a scene to be able to draw the readers in the fight itself. Before you worry, we have potions and healers in the church, of which all the necessary fees are on Leila as the client. We fight for real, but we fight not to kill."

The foxcat girl nodded. "I'm okay with that."

"Good. Anytime you're ready."

Spoiler: second part

Dantia took her stance and began dancing.
"Prelude dance, Ta-"

Before she finished her dance of preparation, Soren made a quick dash. He covered the gap in a blink of an eye and made Dantia cancel her dance hurriedly.

At the end of his dash, he extended his left foot, aiming for the girl's torso. Dantia dodged sideways, twisting her body counter clockwise. She attempted a counter by a downward slash to his shin, but Soren's left hand grabbed her head quicker than her sword. He threw her forward.

She quickly came to, and retaliated mid-air with hurls of fireballs.

"Gurren!"

Three fireballs were launched. Soren swung his sword upwards and those fireballs were extinguished in an instant.
But that was within her plan as she quickly land and now it was her who dashed towards the opponent using the fireballs as a diversion.

"Hmph"

With a snort, Soren swung his sword like a rewinded time. This time with a girl on its path.
Crossing her two swords together, she blocked his sword in exchange for her movement.
"You stopped." Soren murmured.

And a roundhouse kick landed on target: her ribs.

"Gha....!!"

Dantia rolled on the ground, her body received the impact of a heavily armored kick at full price. Her ribs snapped and blood flowed from her lips.

The crowd was thrilled, words of praises rained down on Soren and some cheered Dantia, showing some worries on the girl in pain. Leila however, she wasn't satisfied yet. The fight was too short, and so she didn't say anything and continued watching the two in silence.

"...are you done?"
Perhaps showing his concern, Soren asked Dantia. She took a quick glance towards her client and understood.

"...not yet... Jinka!"
By her words, orbs of green, glittery flames began to dance around her. The flames bring healing attributes, assisting her recovery quicker. In a minute she could stand up and took her stance once again, albeit her breathing was still disturbed and her ribs badly injured.

Spoiler: third part

"Good. That's how warriors do."
Soren praised Dantia's bravery.

Jinka healed her, but by no means she was back to full health. Her ribs were still broken, although jinka made their positions back to normal and her rib muscles partially recovered. She was still in significant pain and every breath she took hurt her.

"Come." Soren beckoned.

She couldn't recklessly dash anymore. She knew by experience that Soren is in any way above her. She couldn't overtake him in speed, her fireballs were taken care of very lightly, and her counterattack was slower than his counter-counterattack.

So this time she took her time. She tried breathing as steadily as possible while slowly circling him, scanning for possible openings.

'ah... Of course, he said that it's a real fight, didn't he?'

Once again she found him lunging towards her with metal sole coming closer. By reflex, she did exactly her previous dodging move to this battle opening kick.

Or at least she tried to.

Twisting her body while having broken ribs proven to be too much for her to handle. She couldn't evade perfectly and she was forced to deflect the foot with her swords. It was hastily done and she ultimately missed her timing, costing her balance to crumble.

Dantia fell down on her butt. She tried to get up but her ribs screamed to her, stunning all her movement due to excruciating pain.

What happened to someone who stopped moving in a fight? Yes. A sitting duck.

Spoiler: fourth part

Soren raised his sword high and swung in a vertical arc. Luckily Dantia was able to answer it by deflection. She joined both her swords and parried the incoming threat.

But the movement demanded her to twist her torso and her ribs once again asked for their tolls. Dantia gasped, in tears and blood, as the injured part wailed and spasmed.

She earned her time though, with how powerful Soren's swing was, his sword lodged quite firmly on the ground.

Her time was up. Soren pulled his sword with a 'hmph' and without delay made a sweeping slash right towards Dantia's head.

Dantia could only lean her body flat to the ground like a limbo dancer to avoid fatality. This move once again tortured her heavily injured torso.

Being in constant fatal threats under overwhelming pain woke her desire to live.

"Nnnnyyyyaaargh!!"
A beastly growl born out of such desire was heard. Disregarding an armored lariat coming to finish her off, she sprung forward to her metallic opponent.

"Hana Arashi!!"

Laying low, she channeled all her concentration to do her ultimate move. Her swords clad in foxflame, she thrusted Soren's left thigh, swung to his right calf's backside all while dashing in low altitude, slipping between his legs. She then made a sharp turn and did a cross slash with both of her swords to Soren's back. She leaped to where she shashed him and kicked, using his weight as a firm stool and momentum of her jump to sprung high as a moonsault. As she landed, three delayed flaming slashes were done to Soren's torso.

Dantia gasped for air, her vision blurred. Jinka's healing was almost useless because she had to make many big movements. She was no longer able to continue, but she had hoped to at least do some damage in retaliation for his one-sided beating.

"...no way..."

Dejectedly swallowing the bitter truth, she saw Soren turned his body to look at her unperturbed, her ultimate move seemingly did as little as mosquito bite.

Unable to support her body, she finally collapsed.

Spoiler: Soren's words

"Well done."

Those were the first words she heard when she regained consciousness.

"... I wasn't an opponent for you..." Dantia said. Her eyes were close to drop tears. She was no warrior, but being toyed with has never done any justice to anyone's pride.

"It is the matter of the difference of our lives." Soren consoled, "I honed my sword for revenge. But even after I did it, I don't slack off. Revenge brings revenge, hatred fuels hatred. I have no longer anyone I see as enemies, but a foolish thing to consider other people think the same as me."
He sighed.

"My path was rough. That's why I could see your hesitation. Your fear. Your hurrying towards desires without preparedness."
He lifted Dantia's hand.

"These small, beautiful hands, yet they had tasted blood."

Dantia flinched, retracted her hand in Soren's grasp.

"I can tell that it was not your intention, but you had no choice but to execute it. Your body was precise, but your heart swayed your aim."

He took a short pause, and stared Dantia's eyes.

"It is as you may have known with your own life that you sometimes have to do what you need to do, even if you are against it. Hesitation comes with confused heart. And that could very well kill you instead."

He then tapped lightly to his legs to the places Dantia struck.

"These are proofs of your immaturity. You hesitated too much, you struck places where you know I would be safe. Even with your last series of strikes..."
He tapped his back.
"You hit the thickest part of the armor with your hardest hits where you could've aimed for my neck or joints."

"Ah... You're right..." Dantia answered, downcasted.

"It is only my advice as someone who is experienced in bloodshed, whether you follow it or not, it is your choice." Said Soren as he leaned forward.

"Find your ways. Look inside yourself and outside to your surroundings. What is your purpose of life? What is your current need? What do you have to do?"

He then made gestures, tapping his chest with two fingers, "come to yourself," and to his temple, "look, learn, think," and clasped both hands, "grasp with all your might," and finally both hands lightly slammed on his thighs, "and walk the way you chose."

Spoiler: satisfied client

After a few bottles of potions and two healing spells, Dantia was finally able to breathe without pain. She thanked Soren and met the client who was fully burning in enthusiasm.

"That was better than I expected! A few silvers were worth it!" Leila said while punching air.
"I was right about you being a bad matchup against Soren, but oh boy oh boy your movements were super good for my work! No, perhaps it's even better! Even more after I heard Soren's comments on you! You're the best! Thank you!"

The super excited client hugged Dantia.

"Nya? I'm glad then~"
"Hey, hey, I'm not letting you go. Your clothes are torn again after that, so let's buy some new ones!"
"Um, I don't-"
"No buts!"
"I didn't say any buts yet..."
"Whatever! Let's buy you some nice dress!"

And so, a certain foxcat girl got dragged to clothing stores until evening came. She ultimately went back to the inn with a bag of new clothes.

"Um, yeah, that's what happened. I said not to buy me any expensive dresses though."

@Lenaia

 

"Did someone kill and replace Soren with a doppelganger? Or maybe he's on drugs, what revenge. Guy's a folk hero a few decades back." The construct shrugged. "Nevertheless, he's always bad at holding back so congratulations on surviving, yes? Your reward, seven large coppers and four guild points. Really, the client should've recruited a C rank at least if she's got the silver to spend on healing, yes? Well, it's her money though. Good day!"

 

ask: Pirate Attacks [Taken by @strikegunner]
Requester: Wogen, Captain of the Red Betty
Quest Rank: D-rank
Rewards: 25 Large Copper Coins
Description: Pirates are cancer I tell ya, cancer! Those annoying pricks have been plaguing the neighborhood of Hero's Port, just lurking around ready to strike a bit after ships leave it!
And they're fast in their toes, the moment they see an official ship, they sail like the wind! The guards are damn angered at being unable to catch those assholes!
Me and my mates won't endure it any longer, board our ship and come with us to the open sea, we'll take the pirates down when they try boarding us!

Spoiler: Report

“Hello, sir. I believe you are the man that guild sent.”

“Indeed. Name’s Fen” I replied

“Wogan. A pleasure to meet ya. We got an hour before we sail, want to warm up with shooting?”

“Prefer not, I have no skill in archery.”

“Hmm. How about crossbow? Take aim and pull the trigger. Easy.” He handed me a crossbow and goat’s foot lever. We were shooting at the target face until one of Red Betty crew came to inform that the ship is ready to sail.

“Mister Fen. How come you do not wear any armour. I have never seen a warrior that doesn’t need protection from monsters and beasts.”

“Ah. I got metal plates back in Nagrand, sadly. It’s will drag me down in the water.”

“How about I give you one. We got loads of them.” We entered the warehouse, there are various labels on the large crates such as weapons, clothing, and food supplies. He opened a crate that seems bigger than a small room, it filled with light and thin plate armours.

“A gambeson. Won’t this absorb the water?”

“If these are normal gambeson. These are made from interest plant called ‘silver flax’. It is thinner, stronger, ductile more than normal linen and water-repellent. The plant needs a complex environment to grow but it grows very quickly, it needs mana. Where do you think they can be grown easily? …In dungeons or probably land of fairies.”

“Where did you find all these armours and information?”

“It’s a little gift from my old friend that has a business underground. Now the empire has another reason to invade north... Let’s go. The crew are readied.”

Fen grabbed the shirt, arm guards and knee pads before he followed Wogen. We departed from the port and headed to the southeast. Almost an hour later, The scout on crow’s nest spotted a ship heading towards our ship, it has a black flag hanging on the pole.

Fire arrows rained down from the sky igniting our sails on fire. Some of Wogen’s men were preparing a suspicious weapon inside the ship, I thought it was a kind of weapon Wogen somehow bought it from his friend. Our ship rammed into the pirate ship, then turned left attempt to board it. Two massive spikes launched from the broadside piercing the hull of a pirate ship and stuck both ships together.

Pirates realised the damage on their ship so they attempted to board our ship. The crew blocked them with spears and shields, the fight broke out while the fire was spreading. Luckily, the heavy rain fell down reducing damages from the fire. I sneaked on their ship to knocked out the heavy-armed men to increase our advantages. Once their leader and elites are captured, the rest of them finally put down the weapons and surrender. We also got information that few of the pirates settled down near the gulf in the east of Asphodelus.
__________

OOC: Is it on time?
@AliceShiki

 

Welcome back Kat-san, seems like you did well~

Apologies for not mentioning the beast's size, though we're afraid we have our hands tied when the requester doesn't provide the appropriate details... Rather, considering what you mentioned, this should probably have not been an E-ranked quest... A certain requester will need to pay an extra fee~ *giggles*

Well, that's nothing you should worry about though, good job, your reward will be of 12 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points.

Be careful with poking the nests of wild animals in the future by the way, sometimes they might go crazy when you steal their eggs... That you're going to sell to... A... Lady? Right uhn... Rub your eyes a bit before looking for said lady, alright? Last I heard, the only person paying for unusual eggs was a dinosaur~

Rest well, you certainly deserve a break~

((*laughs* Kathicia is Tiggerbane's 2nd character! The one that buys eggs is Tera, his 1st character, it's a dinosaur! xD

Hope you had fun with the quest, Mama, sorry for taking so long to appraise it~))

 

Well, that was unexpected... I wonder if something can be done about it...

For now, good job Jack-san, the reward is of 57 Large Copper Coins and 16 Guild Points.

Take care now~

 

@AliceShiki @MrAconter

Spoiler

Task: Acquire Information on Golemancy [Available]
Requester: @Aconter
Quest Rank: E-rank
Rewards: 12 Large Copper Coins
Description: The requester wishes to acquire a small-sized mini-golem. However, they do not have the knowledge on how to make one, nor the means to do so.
The quest's objective is to find a book or something similar that would help the requester in learning about the subject.

Spoiler: Colour codes

Ihl, talking in common language
Ihl, talking in Elvish language

Librarian, talking in common language
Librarian, talking in Elvish language

Es'waz, talking in common language

Spoiler: Report

"Golemancy?", Ihl thought to herself as she walked out of the guild. "Finding a book for it would be easy if I could just ask my parents but that is my last option. This is an orc town so I dont have much hope for there too be a one about topics like golemancy in the local library but I guess I will visit the library just in case. I will visit the bazaar afterwards and seek out the merchant father told me about. That should be enough, probably."
The library of Nagrand was rather a modest sized library. Quite good for an orc town but nothing to write home about. "Well I guess I should not have secretly expected anything more, Guild's headquarters or not," Ihl grumbled a bit. Ignoring the sleeping flying cats wearing gloves perched everywhere in the libary, from the pillars to the librarian's desk, Ihl asked the Elven librarian with boredom printed on his face, "Greetings." A bit surprised on hearing Elvish, the librarian replied, " Greetings, Are you perhaps looking for a certain book? "
"I am looking for books on Golemancy."
"A basic book to get started perhaps? Or the bit more advance ones? The two basic books are both currently borrowed, they will be back here in quarter of a month. As for advance ones, we have books on both body design and core design here. They just arrived two days ago infact."
" Thanks for the help, a friend of mine will borrow the basic books when they arrive back. I would love to browse the library afterwards though. "
" Although the library looks small, the collection here is pretty nice, you will like it. Just ask any of the other librarians for the book you want when you visit again. "
Saying farewell, Ihl exited the library and went to the bazaar thinking that the information might not be enough for the quest. She directly went to the orc merchant's shop her father told her about.
"Excuse me, Is this Es'waz' shop?"
"Indeed youngling, urr young lady, Es'waz at your service. What are you lookin' for?"
"I am Ihl Frostfire. My father told me to look out for you for help in buying items."
"Frostfire? You that bastard's child?", Es'waz laughed, "He wrote to me about you. Dont worry about the money ur the discounts, just order yer item. I will charge appropriate amount."
"Any basic books on Golemancy? My friend was looking for one."
"Golemancy ya say? I have a copy of it lying with me. Just a silver, the book is one of the best one in the market, much better than anything you can find in this town."
Conversing bit more with Es'waz, Ihl left and wrote the report, followed by submitting it to the receptionist.

 

Spoiler: Report

Wold thought of the quest as an interesting venture. From the stories told by adventurers and merchants, he’d expected that an adventurer’s job had consisted of fighting monsters and finding treasures. Wold thought of himself as more of a passive fellow, wanting more to sew and watch magic than to fight and loot. Of course, he understood that adventurers all had to start somewhere, with that somewhere usually being collecting herbs or doing chores. But he was still a bit surprised to see something like ‘please a bored lich’ on the job board. Wold has always been easygoing, at least in his opinion, and so he picked up the job on a whim. It wasn’t based in reason or calculations or anything, but just a random want.

Being a lich, some may have had some expectations going into this quest, but being lackadaisical as he was, Wold was rather thinking about whether or not a lich could taste. One of his favorite things to do was to eat good food, so if a lich could taste he would bring something tasty with him. He especially liked baked potatoes with a good amount of butter. Salt was good too, but butter was best. It was simple, but sometimes the simple way was the best way.

“Ah, liches are skeletal, right? I guess they can’t taste.” Wold murmured. Yikes, I’d be so sad if I couldn’t taste. Well, I’m sure there’s something good that comes out of everlasting life, mmm? Well since the lich is bored, maybe not.

“Then what do I do . . . “ Wold scratched his head. Since the crypt was uncovered recently, the lich wouldn’t know much about the outside world, right? “Maybe I’ll bring some books, I guess. There’s a library here, I’m pretty sure.”

Turning to a nearby stranger to ask for directions, Wold strolled into the library some time later. It was nice outside, so he walked around a bit, in no hurry at all. The library was dry and quiet except for the sounds of pages turning here and there. It was a nice place that smelled of paper and ink, really giving off the feel of a place of peace and intellect. Wold felt very comfortable in this place, even though it was his first time in the library. He walked over to the librarian and told his name, and in return being told the standard repercussions for not returning a book on time.

“First time here?”

“Mmm?” Wold turned to the orcish librarian. The orc was muscular and hulking, creating a severe contrast to the books that surrounded him. Wold's average 175cm height looked almost like a child in comparison to this two and a half meter tall orc. Still, Wold wasn’t cowed by this difference, having been desensitized by the town and it’s varied population already. “Yeah, it’s my first time here.”

“I’m Urlagrod, the librarian here. Tell me if you need anything, or if you want to borrow a book.”

Flashing his guild badge, Wold said “I’m Wold. I’ll be borrowing some books for a quest.”

“Oh, really? What are you looking for? I might be able to tell you where to look.”

“There’s this lich that’s been discovered recently” Wold replied, “he’s pretty bored, apparently, so I was going to bring some books for him to read.”

Urlagrod was intrigued. “Well since he’s a lich, he’d be interested in magic, no? They are some books on recent magical theory on the bottom of the bookshelf in the third isle, to your left. I’m sure that will at least get you started.”

“Thanks, I’ll definitely take those. Also, would you recommend any fiction? I’m looking for something nice to read later?”

“Oh, a fellow reader, how nice. I’d recommend The Soothsayer Chronicles, it’s a fun read and the series is completed.” Urlagrod smiled at the thought of being able to talk to someone about the series later.

“Thanks again, let me get that, too. Be right back.” Wold went off to get the books. What a nice person. I should read that book here later, it’s got a nice atmosphere, and it’s quiet.

———​

The crypt the lich lived in had a foreboding atmosphere, enough to make those ignorant of what lies inside break out in a cold sweat. Wold was fine, though, since he was well aware that the lich inside was harmless and just bored. In Wold's arms were various books that explained the recent advancements in magic. It had taken some time to get to the crypt, and adding on to the fact that Wold was in no hurry to get the quest done, it was already lunchtime even though he had set out in the morning. Dang, I regret not bringing something to eat. I got to remember for next time. Oh, is that the lich? That looks so uncomfortable, yikes.

In front of Wold was a stone wall with a skeleton embedded inside, with only a small amount of the skeleton's upper body sticking out. Wold saw the skeleton's eyes blazed with a green light as the lich lifted his head to greet the newcomer. "Hello, are you the adventurer that accepted my quest?"

The lich didn't speak through his mouth, and it didn't even seem like there was voice being magically projected. Wold was startled to hear a foreign voice inside his mind. Wow, is this telepathy? Feels weird. "Yeah, I brought some books on magic. If you don't like them, you can tell me if there's anything specific you want to read and I'll bring it if I can."

"No, this is fine. But I am very interested in . . . your eyes.” The flames in the lich’s eyes seemed to brighten as he spoke. “It seems ancient, originating from both mana and ki. I’ve seen something like it before, but I wasn’t able to properly study it. Would you mind if you could tell me how you acquired these eyes?”

“Mmm . . . it’s a family secret.”

“I promise, it will be worth your time. I have lived for a very long time, and I’m sure my knowledge holds something you want.”

Wold’s eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t doubt you do. But family is first in this world to me. I can’t tell you as it might put my family in jeopardy. I’m sorry, but no can do.”

“Understood, understood . . . well, pass me those books. I can still use a bit of magic, so you don’t need to read them to me.” The sudden change was strange, but Wold didn’t think too much about it. The lich continued, “You can leave if you want. Come back tomorrow with more books like these. Also, bring some books on history, too.”

“Yessir.” Wold smiled and put down the books in his arms. “Can you read the language?”

“It’s fine, I can teach myself. Now go, I have to think.”

———

For the next few days, it was a repeat of the same process for Wold: wake up, go to the library, go to the crypt, take the books he had read back to the library. Wold enjoyed his little chore everyday and looked around town in his free time, feeling very good about himself for choosing such an easy task. Wold went around to various stores and took their leftover cloth to make some clothing to sell in his free time. He also made sure to start reading the Soothsayer Chronicles, and like Urlagrod promised, it was fun to read. The request the lich had made at their first meeting was put at the back of Wold’s mind till now.

“Eh? You’re still on that, Morgan?” Wold put down his half-eaten food and made eye contact with the lich. “I told you, I can’t tell you. Family first. I can’t risk any information about my family’s largest secret leaking. Although the Jikes tribe is a peaceful one, I’m sure you know there are always people who are greedy for more power.”

A strange friendship had birthed from the unlikely meeting between birdman and lich. Wold was very easygoing and didn’t pry into Morgan’s past or circumstances, something Morgan was grateful for. Morgan gave Wold an easy job, so Wold was quite grateful for that. The two had reached a silent coexistence. But after a few days of researching, Morgan returned to the previous topic of Wold’s eyes.

“Listen, Wold. I have a method that can endure secrecy. Will you let me research your eyes now?”

Wold questioned “Why are you so fixated on my eyes? I’m sure the books I gave you have things that would interest you, too.”

Morgan tilted his head downwards and spoke “I . . . I gained immortality through this forbidden method because magic fascinated me so much. So much that a normal lifespan wasn’t long enough to learn what I wanted. But I was sealed because of . . . circumstances. Although these books have advanced my understanding of magic, your eyes . . . your eyes can revolutionize my magic. Please . . . “

Wold was silent for a moment. He thought about the past few days, thought about Morgan’s personality. Wold pitied the lich, as such an adventurous and curious being was sealed into a wall with no way out. “I . . . are you sure this method is foolproof?”

Morgan’s head lifted and even with an unchanging skeletal head, one could see the excitement within the flames that were his eyes. “Yes!”

———

Wold handed in the quest with a tired smile. “This quest was quite eventful.”

Ooc: @AliceShiki sry bout the lateness it won’t happen again

 

((Apparently Alice forgot to link the previous quest ))

 

Spoiler: Hello Stranger

A man appeared in the skies, swinging his whip toward the trees under him.

Grappling away from one tree to another, there’s things that needed to be pointed, first of all, he’s using his left hand instead of his right hand, the main arm. Second, the swinging are just like one’s beginner at it!
And lastly…

[Just like back in ‘school’... learning on how to whip from the start just for another hand will be the hardest for me, as I’m not as ambidextrous as some of the better adventurers, or even like my father!]

[Ain’t our father can just control the whip with his mind though? It’s fire, after all.]

[Oh, right. That’s right, Veri…]

Third, he had just missed a grapple.

“Ah-aahhh!!!”

Valuren crashed, he crashed into a rather large tree branch - he could feel his ribs breaking apart as he coughed out a spit before falling behind and to the ground.

“Ow-ouch-ouch-ouch…! Ow!!”

He felt the pain finally reaching both of his ribs and his injured right shoulder, holding his right arm, holding his tears from coming out of his eyes.

[I hated walking so much… oww…]

[How stubborn, you reaped what you sow~.]

Valuren stands up, holding his broken ribs and right arm respectively, he continued to speak his thoughts about using his chains properly.

[B-But… Veri…! I’m only stubborn because I missed swinging my whip so much, it’s been a week of nothing! I want to be up in the skies! The perfection, the sensation and the grand feelings of a perfect swing… a perfect grapple… and… style…!]

[Valuren. You know that, your body won’t obey your mind if you force it too much.]

“So be it…!!”

He creates the whip again, slamming it twice as hard as possible on the dirt ground, creating cracks into it.

“Latch! On that tree!! …?!”

What Veri predicted, became true. Valuren couldn’t move his body, he had lost control of his own body - the pains from before caused his mind to shut down the uses of body parts in order to save itself from being hurt again.

“Hey, look!”

“Huh?”

Veri phases out of his body, only the upper half of her just to point at where Valuren had yelled at, the tree branches.

The black chains, is gripping tightly on the branches!

Surprised by the sights of it, he turns to look at his left hand, he still couldn’t move his hand,

“W-What the hell…? Veri, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know… try talking to it!”

“Eh?”, looking at the chains on his grip, then back to the chains gripping on the branches, “I… I will try…?”

“Ahem…! Lift me up, with style.”

The chains tightens up, causing Valuren’s body to be lifted off the ground and off to the skies, the perfect speed for a jump-start, just like the way he always wanted, the way of his main arm had crossed since he was a 10-year old kid!

[I… I can make the whip grapple by itself!!]

[Your markings are glowing, both of them! Usually it’s just where you grip on the chains! Left grip, left glows! Right grip, right glows! Now's it's both of them!]

[...But.]

[? What is it, Valuren?]

[But, my Veri… having to continuously think of where I should grapple next is a bit… of a hassle…]

[W-W-Wait! That means…?]

…

They’re falling alright.

“Aaaaahhhhh!!!!”, both of them screams as they fall…

Valuren hits the ground head first, slowly, he lifts his head to find the village in sight,

“A-oww… finally… let me rest up a bit…”, dropping his head back on the ground, muffling his next words after that.

Unholy Hell had struck me down, that’s what he said before 'preparing' himself to go into the New Spice Village.


*******


After an hour passed, Valuren had created the chained sling arm to hold his right arm and shoulder back together, before rushing into the village to find the chief. He was stopped by the guard standing in post.

“Hey, you.”

Valuren stops on his tracks, turning to look at the guard and was relieved that he found someone helpful to find the village chief,

“You’re the guard, right?”

“I am… hrmm…”, the guard scrutinizes Valuren’s dirty appearance, his clothing are full of dirt and his face were a bit bloody from the fall earlier.

“Who might you be… you’re dirty. Are you okay?”

Valuren searched for his guild badge inside of his trousers pockets, showing the badge to the guard before introducing himself,

“I’m Valuren, an adventurer from the Guild.”, he pats his body off the dirt, swiping off dirt and blood from his face before taking out the quest sheet from his pouch.

“I’m on a mission, sir.”

“I see, at least you realised that you got self-respect. Follow me, let’s meet the chief of our village.”

“Uhm, before that…”

The guard stopped, turning toward him with a frowned expression.

“Can I have some water? My face and throat are a little dry.”

Sigh escaped from the guard’s mouth.


*******


A few moments passed by, the guard brought Valuren to meet the village chief to obtain more information about the person in grey cloak. He wanted info about the person’s last whereabouts, as he wants to meet him personally.

After gathering enough information and details of the mysterious stranger, Valuren goes to an alley, walking into the alleyway - finding nothing suspicious until he leaves to the other side.

The person in grey cloak is there, standing by the tree.

[Is he… anticipating my arrival? He’s smiling.]

Valuren finds the person’s bottom half of his face, he was smiling the whole time the moment he arrived to the area.

[Veri…]

He placed his hand against his chest area, rubbing his injured ribs as he feels the pain from before coming back to him,

[...do you think that I should… change my mode?]

[You… you want to eat him up?]

[What, no!]

He began stroking his chin, looking straight at the cloaked man.

[I want to scare him away.]

[It’s risky, I can’t help you since I will disappear when you entered in that nature. You can’t really control yourself from the urges of a feminine sadist.]

[F-Feminine sadist, the hell…? Don’t say that now…]

Valuren takes a step forward, straight toward the mysterious stranger,

[But I need to do it, I should give it a try, I needed to control my Mark after all.]

[Good luck, one advice… Do it when the time’s right!]

The cloaked stranger notices Valuren walking toward him, an evil smile appear on his face, Valuren stops in front of him, checking him out and begin asking him to confirm his thoughts about the man.

“Hey, I heard a rumour that you… sell something in a great price.”

The stranger continue to smile, as if he’s scheming something,

“Hm. I guess I got the wrong guy, I was so sure that he was around here…”

He continues, while acting like a completely different person, “I was interested too, since I needed a new set of weapons here…”, he reveals the two cracked iron daggers on his left side to the stranger.

“Hm-mhm-mhm… Yes? You called?”

Valuren stares at the hooded man, he noticed that his voice were actually heart-piercing, as if his voice were reaching into his soul.

[W-What the hell…? His voice are very… different.]

He cleared those quick thoughts away as he clears his throat lightly,

“So…! Who are you? I’m Throusa Gyuria, a wanderer.”

[Faking my name, why not? He ain’t getting it pretty easily, since that name was one of my ancestor’s! Dear father told me about it after showing me the lineage scroll, that’s how I come to know it.]

The stranger continue to smile, this time, he talks, “I am, no one. However… you, Throusa Gyuria, are someone I find… very, very, interesting.”

“Oh-ho, really now? Someone who know me that well… oh? Are you a precious fan of mine, mister no one?”, Valuren let out a snicker, being in a drama club at one point during middle school can make him act completely like a different person.

[But… now that I’m hearing his voices again, he sounds like a girl… maybe I should do it now…?]

”Very well.”

Valuren gazes at him for a while, smiling at the fish (the stranger) taking the bait that easily.
Time to strike,

“So, what is this ‘Doom Weapons’ you’ve been selling? I am also… a being of Doom itself.”

The mysterious stranger goes over to his wooden cases, there were five of them before looking back to Valuren, “Interesting… interesti---?!!”

He shrieked, but that kind of shrieking was obvious to the ears of anyone! The mysterious stranger was not a man!
It was a woman!

Valuren’s face turned dark, his casual aura are turning black, his hair rises slightly upward, and lastly, his red eyed-stares are getting more deadly by the second.

“My, my, my, my, my, my…”

“What’s wrong…? Won’t you show me thy merchandise?~~”

Hearing a completely different voice coming out of Valuren caused the stranger gulped in the fears of witnessing a possible death of hers. He ‘kindly’ smiles at the girl, not.

“What’s wrong… dear?”, he leans forward, licking his lips seductively like a tiger had found its’ prey.

“Yeeek!!!”, she screamed and falls on the ground behind her, Valuren slowly walks forward while she’s backing away from him.

“Ahhnnn, that kind of expression - on how I missed it so m---…? Ah.”, he comes back to his usual self after placing his index finger against his lower lips hitting his tongue.

He then turns to look at the terrified woman, his eyes are back to normal orange-red, the dark atmosphere are no longer there.

"P-P-Please! Don't kill me!"

“Then, leave this village at once! Never do these kind of thing again or I won't stop haunting you!!”, holding his throat from the pain.

I will be forcing myself to scream out my vocal cords until you leave!, was what he thought about before advancing toward the girl.

“Yeeeek!! Yes!!!”, yelped the stranger woman as she tries to carry her cases away with her.

“I’m taking those, just leave.”

“Just take it, you creep!!!”, she runs away, leaving the area at once.

[Ah, she falls on her face over there, pretty quick to get up too.]

Valuren sigh tired, he then notices a flame spark on his left hand, slowly creating into a fireball, the color of the flames were pure black, and his forearms’ markings are glowing.

“Hm?”, he lifts his hand to touch the fireball - only to witness it vanishing along with the glowing.

[That was… something… familiar…? Well, for now… let’s see what kind of weapons do I get to steal.]


*******


Crouching down and rummaging through all five wooden cases, he placed down the weapons according to his preferred choices;

[All of them are beautiful, nicely decorated with some unique vibes coming off them. Yet, all of them are just normal weapons.]


First ‘Doom Weapon’,
Iron Double-bit Battle axe.

Lifting the iron battle axe was heavier than he would think about, however… the design of this axe was made to be one-handed, not a two-handed like he needed to do in order to lift the weapon.

[What silly design, the handle are made in a really good quality black leather too, some parts of the head of the battle axe coated in black material…]

Sniffing the material, he confirms it as the smell of wood.

[There’s also this… red gem poking out in the middle.]

He taps on the red gem with his finger, smiling yet again, “More like colored stones, genius, but stupid.”

[What made this one’s the first choice, was… the skull at the eye of the battle axe, it’s neat, but… is it real?]

Another tapping.

[It’s iron. That’s it, I guess. Next is… a painted in black sword.]

He sighed, about how ridiculous it looks like.


Second ‘Doom Weapon’,
Steel Broadsword.

Lifting the sword, it was lighter than he would expect from the material used being steel. He noticed something on the pommel and the middle of the hilt that catches his attention the most,

[Red colored stone on the bottom on the pommel, nice, I like that. The same leather, check. The iron skull’s there, at the hilt - nice touch. For a tiresome weapon.]

“Next weapon, oh? Just a staff with a skull at the top?”


Third ‘Doom Weapon’,
Not a Staff but an Iron Nun-chucks.

[I don’t really need to doubt the weight of this staff after all, it’s pretty light already.]

Valuren noticed something new on the middle part of the staff, “Hm, some sort of a small lever?”

As he clicked on the black switch on the staff, the skull on the staff detached right off the top of the staff. However on the impact of the skull hitting the ground, it shattered - the skull was a real one.

“O-Oh… what the hell?”, he looks at the staff on the ground.

[H-Hell strike me down, that’s a nun-chucks if I see one! Interesting find!]

He lifts the nun-chucks and begin swinging it, instantly hitting himself at his right arm,

“Ouch-ouch! Right, no time for playing around! Next~.”


Fourth ‘Doom Weapon’,
Steel Detachable Long Daggers.

[This one… I like.]

Lifting the daggers was a piece of cake.

[Hm, both of these rather cool daggers’ hilt got them red colored stones. The quality of the leather are the same like the broadsword and the battle axe used. Hm? Odd design for these daggers…]

He decided to push the two pommels together.

Click, something was attached, it was the daggers.

[W-W-Woah, I love it! I don’t know how to properly use double bladed daggers but I love it!]

“Next weapon, the last one.”


Fifth ‘Doom Weapon’,
Dark Wooden Longbow and Arrows.

[Archery! ...I don’t know anything about it. The string looks nice.]

He runs his finger on the string serving, the gentle sounds of the string making was a little fun for him,

[I don’t know what kind of material used… for the string, but it sounds so soothing. Not sure if that’s bad quality string or not.]

“Well! Let’s check on the arrows.”, lifting the quivers’ brown leather bag, he finds there was about twenty arrows inside of the bag.

Taking out one of the arrows, he checks on the material used on the tip of the arrow, and the wood shaft’s quality.

Tapping on the point of the arrow, he confirms that the material used was iron tip,

[An iron arrow… is it expensive? I don’t know, man.]

He then tests the wooden shaft by slightly bending it, hoping it to break apart easily, unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

[Good quality wood, I believe Arawn wants these arrows. Never knew that finding goods could be fun.]

“Time to put all of these, into the bag.”


Valuren glanced toward the wooden cases again, he was looking at the unknown badge on the cover.

[That badge looks like a skull of some sort of a monster… or an undead, and it’s all in red? But, there’s a writing around it - in a language I don’t understand myself, must be another one of the languages in Edhellen.]

“I should bring that badge back to the guild, to decipher what it meant.”

He used both of his cracked daggers to cut away the badge from the wooden badge, why both? Both of them were broken after two stabs on the wooden case.

[Maybe, I should grab these cool daggers after I turned them in.]


*******


Valuren have ‘confiscated’ the weapons, as he was about to leave to meet with the village chief to report about what had transpired earlier, Veri returns - asking him a rather inappropriate question,

[Well, well. How was the stranger?]

[Veri… I didn’t do anything to her, don’t worry about it.]

[Lewd.]

[You’re joking around too much, Veri. At least, I can take all of these nice weapons back to the guild.]

[Sorry~, sorry~, want me to kiss you?]

…

“Sure.”

Veri phased out of his body, blushing after hearing his words, “W-Wha, I’m just kidding!”

Valuren’s expression did not change.

“F-Fine…!”

As she reached for the kiss, Valuren turns around to grab the bag from the ground, “I don’t need it.”

Redness hits her ears this time, what a change, “Awnnnn… just when I really wanted to do it too…”

Valuren leans over to her right ear, whispering some words, she only smiles back in response as she phased back into his body.

Once we returned to our world - you can have your kiss, Veri, was what he whispered to the girl.


*******


“Oh, welcome back. How was the deal?”

“Dealt with it, I scared the stranger away, is that good enough?”, he smiles at the village chief.

”I don’t mind how you do it… as long as you didn’t kill them though, but… since you scared them off this village, they might be targeting other villages.”

”Oh, about that. Don’t worry, I kinda…”, he scratches his cheek before continuing, “...scared her senseless, tortured her I guess? But I’m sure she won’t do it again. At least, not in a good amount of time.”

”The mysterious stranger was a woman? Hmm… anyway, that’s a good news. Thank you very much! What’s your name, adventurer?”

”Valuren Chaan Hourtha.”

He leaves shortly after the quick goodbyes, walking home instead of grappling home. As he needed to re-learn on how to whip again for his left hand if he’s impatient enough to wait for his right hand to recover.

He places the bag of weapons on the desk, he then moves to the side to look at the receptionist, the ogre-friendly human smiles.
“Can I keep the daggers? It’s pretty. And oh, is Arawn around? I want to give him the arrows from the loot.”

@AliceShiki

 

@AliceShiki

Spoiler: Report

Having accepted this quest, the first thing Catyumi does is to enter the market and buy a lot of things; namely a gambeson, a quiver, a dagger, and 28 arrows, completely emptying her budget. But to her, as an investment to become a great archer, that seems absolutely fine.

Now, properly equipped for the quest, Catyumi starts to make her way to Anton's farm, merrily skipping along as a light breeze caresses her hair and ears.

Arriving at the farm, lush pastures surround her, and the faint sound of a trickling creek can be heard. But, there aren't really a lot of animals. With a frown, Catyumi wanders to the solid-looking wooden house standing between the pastures and raps her knuckles against the door and calls out: "Aaa~nyone there?"

A surprised shout from inside, followed by the dull sound of something dropping onto the floor, and the clattering as something inside makes its way to the door. Then, said door opens slightly, bloodshot eyes looking at Catyumi from within the house. A rough voice questions: "I'm Anton. You're the adventurer sent to take care of these birds?"

"Yep, that's me!" Confirms Catyumi and, after looking over the almost completely empty pastures, adds: "I'm sorry that I couldn't arrive earlier."

Anton sighs: "Well, as long as you can deal with those birds, it's fine. I should be able to manage somehow, as soon as I can leave my house without feeling like I'm in danger. Can't even sleep properly nowadays."

"No worries!" comes Catyumi's consolation. "I'll stay here as long as necessary until they don't bother you anymore, ready to shoot down as many as needed."

Before Anton can say anything, there comes a faint flapping sound, almost impossible to hear over the sound of the faint breeze blowing through the grass. But Anton hears and recognizes it. "They are here!" Comes his shout, before he slams his door shut, leaving a slightly befuddled Catyumi standing outside.

However, after turning around, she spots the source of his worries - a giant bird, its wings a mixture of red and black feathers, is approaching the farm and the few animals left tremble and try to hide.

Catyumi immediately manifests her bow, takes one arrow out of her quiver, and rushes towards the bird. Said bird seems slightly confused at the presence of Catyumi, but after circling around a few times, decides to still dive down, aiming to seize a goat.

As the bird swoops down, Catyumi clams her pounding heart, and with a single breath, takes aim at the bird, pulls the bow's string with the arrow on it back, and holds her breath, waiting for a good time to shoot. And, as the bird changes from swooping down to horizontally approaching the goat, Catyumi releases the arrow, already taking the next arrow from the quiver at her hip and nocking it onto the string.

Having nocked in the arrow, she looks back up, spotting the bird - lying on the floor in a heap of feathers and broken bones, with a broken arrow sticking in its left wing. Breathing a sigh of relief, Catyumi relaxes her arms and approaches the bird, placing the arrow back in her quiver and canceling the manifestation of her bow.

Once next to the bird, she pulls her dagger, takes aim, and drives it into the bird's skull with both hands. After twisting it around a bit to make sure the bird is dead, she pulls it back out and goes to the wooden house, calling: "Hey, Anton! I killed one! Do you think it's edible? I'm pretty hungry, so could you cook it? We'll have a feast tonight!"

It takes Catyumi quite a lot of convincing to move Anton to leave his house, but she manages to achieve it. A few hours later, they both sit around a campfire, the bird's meat being grilled by its flames as the sun shines straight down on them from between a handful of clouds. While Anton warily looks up at the sky every few minutes, Catyumi only has eyes for the meat.

"Oh, it looks great! I can eat it, right? Can I eat it? Can I, can I?" Pesters Catyumi Anton, until he finally snaps.

"How can you be so calm!? What if another of those birds comes!? They'd kill us!"

"Aww, don't be so nervous!" Laughs Catyumi. "I'm sure it will be fine. After all, they are a sort of herd species, and I don't know why they would come here twice in separate groups in a single day."

And, as if to mock Catyumi, this is the exact moment when a bird's cry can be heard. As both she and Anton look up they spot another of these birds, currently circling away from the farm. Anton's face falls, but Catyumi encouragingly pats him on the back.

"No worries, I'll fight tomorrow as well. Actually, why don't you learn archery as well? You'd be able to shoot them down yourself!"

"Shoot them myself...?" doubts Anton, but Catyumi keeps pushing.

"Yes, shoot them yourself! I'm sure that you can do it, and it's going to be amazing! Didn't you always want to be an archer?"

"Not really, no... fighting is scary."

"You fight from a distance as an archer, so no problem! If you're good, you won't even get hurt!"

Anton wavers, before finally agreeing. "Alright, fine, I'll become an archer."

"Great!" shouts Catyumi before manifesting her bow, handing him a handful of arrows and quickly erecting a makeshift target for practice. As Anton hesitantly looks at the bow and target, Catyumi encouragingly calls out: "Don't worry, just shoot a few times to get a good feel of the bow."

Unaware that what Catyumi does essentially is (temporarily) entrusting her ambition of becoming a great archer to him, Anton's courage and willingness to practice rises every second he holds the bow. He nocks an arrow and draws the string back with unusual determination, and fires the first arrow. Then the second, and third, and very quickly, all of the arrows he has at hand have been fired.

He frowns, visibly unsatisfied at his result, and just as he is about to go forward to collect the arrows, Catyumi snatches the bow back. "That's enough for now, okay?"

Anton recoils, utterly confused about the sudden motivation he had - and how most of it is gone just as quickly. "What... happened?"

"This is a great bow, right? But I'm not giving it away! Buy your own bow if you want to practice archery, okay?"

Having convinced/brainwashed Anton into wanting to become an archer as well, Catyumi and him go to sleep once the sun sets, one restless, and one dozing off without worries.

At the beginning of the next day, Anton goes towards a nearby village to buy a bow for himself, while Catyumi trains her accuracy, and watches over the animals, an eye always directed at the sky. But nothing appears, and when Anton returns in the afternoon, they start practicing together. After an uneventful dinner, they then go to sleep.

This night, Anton is not as restless as the night before, and Catyumi curls up near the fireplace, doing her best to be cat-like.

However, at noon on the next day, a pair of the birds returns, first circling over the farm, and then diving down to attack Anton and Catyumi. This time, the birds are aware of what kind of tool bows are, and after some fruitless fighting between the two groups, the birds retreat.

Catyumi then consoles the panting Anton, who failed to make a proper shot during the battle, encouraging him with the fact that the birds did not take livestock this time.

The next few days are of a similar nature, with the birds returning every now and then, until finally, they seem to decide that it's not worth it - never returning to Anton's farm again. To make sure that it is safe, Catyumi stays at Anton's house for one more week, either playing around in her free time or training with Anton.

Then, after one week of peace, she says farewell to Anton, and makes her way back to the guild to report.

It's finally done. The end was very rushed, but I think it's mostly alright. Nothing too good though.

 

Well, that was quite the tiger, to think it could even use Telepathy... Kyre should stop going after big preys and retire already... >.>

Great job out there Zinc-san, the reward will be of 19 Large Copper Coins and 8 Guild Points~

Take care now~

 

Well... I suppose even ogres have a hard time dealing with heartbreaks...

Good job Valuren-san, you did well, your reward will be of 11 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points.

Take care now, I hope your arm heals soon~