Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild: Frontier (Task Board/Report Counter)

OOC: Rolling for ore first, then fruits

 

!roll 1,6,2

 

NUF Dice Roller

Min: 1
Max: 6
Number of Dice: 2

@Fossil, you rolled: 1, 5

 

Wrong thread.

 

NUF Dice Roller

Roll limits: -9999999999 to 9999999999

@BB_Tensei, an error has occured. To use the dice roller, please use the command "!roll min,max" without the quotes. Min being The lowest value to return and max being the highest value to return.

You may also use "!roll min,max,num_of_dice" if you want to roll multiple dice at once. The maximum dice you may use is 100.

 

Spoiler: Report

Before heading out of the guild hall, Ruby and I put away some materials and clean up some dirty tables in the tavern. It's not much, but there's also not much activity in the hall to get it too dirty or cluttered in the first place. After reporting in to the guild about finishing up our job, we grabbed a pickaxe and headed towards the cliffside first this time.

We actually managed to get quite lucky this time, too! We found a decent amount of ore, though I'm unsure what kind it is. Whatever it is, it sure seemed attractive to some people. Namely, some bandits. Three of them happened by us as we were mining, and were eyeing up what we had in our satchel. Noticing the impending danger, I discreetly motioned to Ruby that we should prepare to leave.

As soon as she nodded and turned to leave with me, one of the bandits grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Hey! Watch it!" She yelled, clearly uncomfortable. The bandit looked her up and down, with a sleazy grin on his face.

"My, aren't you quite cute. What do you say you give us those rocks and we'll show you a good time?" His accomplices next to him eagerly nodded along to his impure words. Fearing for the worst, I started muttering a chant to start a flame on their clothes so that we could run away while they're distracted.

At least, that was the plan until they decided to lay their hands on Ruby's chest. "May you burn, FLAME!" Finishing up my chant, a small fire bursts forth on the clothing of the bandit feeling up Ruby. I put a hand on my sword and rush in, attempting to slash at the hand that's desecrating my friend.

Unfortunately for me, due to the fire, the bandit withdraws his hand in an effort to put out the flame as he exclaims, "Ouch! Where the fuck is this fire from?!" Soon he locks his eyes on me and glares. I spit on the ground at his feet.

Putting myself between him and Ruby, I say, "How dare you touch Ruby, you bastard!" I hold my katana vertically in front of me in a defensive stance, trying to scope him out and keep the other two bandits in sight. Time passes slowly as I feel sweat drip from my brow in concentration.

Quickly, the stalemate ends as one of the bandits makes a move, grabbing a curved sword from their waist as they attempt to slash down diagonally at my neck with it. Ducking, I barely dodge it as I see a few strands of hair float down and feel the hit connect with my katana.

They're fast, I think to myself as I tilt my sword to redirect his slash towards his friend. Fast as he is, his movements were sloppy and his form unstable. I couldn't take them on myself quickly, so my best bet was to get them to finish each other off. As I watch, the swing connects into the first bandit's torso and leaves a deep gash.

Taking advantage of their confusion, I jump in with my sword at my side, and aim for the bandit who just injured his comrade. Taking the handle of my sword, I slam it straight into his rib cage and send him stumbling towards the last thief. As I make my way towards him, I see a some ore fly towards him.

Looking to where it came from, I see Ruby holding the rocks we collected, tossing them at the vile creatures. Grinning, I step forward again with more confidence. The poor thief is shaking in his shoes at this point, barely able to stand. Not that I care, as they dared to have such lecherous thoughts about Ruby. And for that, they'll pay.

Taking my sword in both hands yet again, I take a swing at his neck with the back of my sword, knocking him unconscious. Tired, I knock out the other ones too before beginning to drag them to the guild hall with Ruby's help.

Exiting the hall once again, Ruby and I go to the East to gather some berries, of which we are extremely successful with, managing to find some medicinal berries that Ruby doesn't scorch. Planning on making some medicinal salves too, we grab a few plants near a river that have some medicinal properties. Happily walking back to the guild hall, we arrive and press the berries before rolling them up in the leaves of the plants we collected. Ruby and I used to use these leaves to take care of scratches and burns we might get in our sparring matches, and the berries should do a good job of preventing any infections. Turning them into the guild, we head to the tavern to relax.

 

Spoiler: Report

E-Rank Tasks (Gather Fruits, Gather Ore, Construction Work Assistance):

New day but same tasks.
Taking the same tasks as yesterday ... and the day before yesterday.
Well they are just the best tasks in my opinion.
I mean I can eat fruits, maybe find some shiny ores and prepare to build my own house.
After taking the tasks I make my way towards the building site.
"Finally! I can do something else than being a flying transport shuttle." I said.
But now I'm a Flamethrower ... I mean at least its something new.
Finished with my task, which was to help them smelt metals they needed for construction, I flew out of the city towards the plains.

Searching for a bush with fruits again I circle the plains from the air until I find a big bush with lots of fruits.
Flying towards it, I take a look what kind of fruits I would find today.
Same as yesterday, normal fruits.
Shoving them in my inventory I fly off towards the cliffs.

Looking from above I look for the shiniest rock I can find and drop it from the air.
I mean why should I do something new if the good old way works perfectly fine.
Taking the ores with my, which were just some normal ores, I fly off to search for bandit camps.
This time with spices.

Spoiler: Report

D-Rank Task (Subjugate Monsters):


Flying along the cliffs in search for bandit nests, I want to destroy two nests today too, I saw some smoke coming from a narrow canyon. Making my way towards the canyon I notice that there are a lot off loose stones on top of it.
"With a bit of tremor I'm sure they would fall down in the canyon" I though.
Looking inside the canyon I find a small nest of bandits with three tents.
"Looks like they just started making their camp" I said.
Observing the surroundings again I start to make my way back up towards the loose stones.
I fly high up in the sky and start dropping as fast as I could.
Slamming in to the ground I set of a tremor strong enough to let the loose stones roll down the canyon.
Swiftly flying towards the other site of the canyon I repeat the process and watch the rock roll down the canyon towards the bandits camp. Looking down I see them finally noticing the rocks, and they start running around to get away from the rock.
Sadly or more like luckily for me, they are not fast enough and get buried by the rocks.
Flying down to look for survivors I notice one bandit who is still alive.
His arms and legs are broken, but he still breathes.
Making my way towards him, I noticed a purple gem with mysterious inscriptions on it lying next to him.
I feel strangely attracted towards that gem.
Flying closer I take the gem and but it in my inventory.
"Where did you find that gem?" I asked the bandit.
"In a- a ruin wi- with some str- strange inscriptions" he said while struggling to speak because of the blood loss.
"Where is that ruin?" I ask the bandit.
"It's ... " before he could finish his words he died because of blood loss.
Thinking about the stone and the ruins he mentioned for some time, but not coming up with useful answers I ignored it for now and start flying off towards the east.
Searching for another bandit nest in the forest I fly above the trees too scout the area.
Finally, after flying for some time I found a few wooden houses with bandits walking around them.
"Oh, they already build a few wooden houses." I remarked.
Looking at a bandit who seems to be their leader going to a wooden house I came up with a plan.
I sneakily fly above the house the bandit leader is in and look for a way to get inside.
Noticing a window, the only window in that house, that is open I transform myself back to my human form and climb through it while watching out that no one notices it.
"Looks like the bandit leader went to take a nap" I thought while seeing him sleep in a bed.
That's a perfect chance.
I immediately slice his throat with my claws while holding his mouth, so he can't scream.
After he died I put the blanket he was sleeping with on the ground and put the bandit leader on it.
I wrap him up with the blanket and put him behind the bed where you can't see him.
Taking out my Ring with appearance altering magic I transform my self into the bandit leader.
I closed the window and walked outside.
"Hey guys, come in my house I have something to talk about" I shouted.
Waiting for some while I see them walking inside one after one.
Making sure that everyone was inside I walked closer to the door with some spices in my hand.
"Hey boss what did you want to talk about?" asked a bandit.
"I just wanted to tell you that today will be a really hot day." I said a threw the spices inside.
I then shot a fire dragon breath inside the house and quickly closed the door and blocked it with a plank from outside.
Going towards the window I wait to see if someone wants to climb through it to escape the now burning house.
Screams could be heard from inside the house and one bandit tried to climb out of the window.
Before he could climb out completely I stabbed him in his heart and killed him.
Now that the bandit is dead and blocking the window for other bandits to get out I wait patiently till the house completely burned down and all bandits are dead.
"Hmm, it sure does smell better with the spices." I said and flew off back towards the town to report my tasks.

 

Spoiler: Report

After sleeping late till the afternoon as usual, Adam wakes up and starts exercising. After an hour of repeatedly grilling his muscles, he eats breakfast and then goes on to the adventure hall to find some rewarding quests to complete. Seeing the task board, his expression became that of delight. Grabbing 3 quests and submitting them, he goes out of the guild hall. Borrowing a trolley with wheels and a pickaxe, he decides to first gather fruit and mine ores, and then go out and kick some bandit *ss.

Going out of the town, and breathing in the odor of mother nature, Adam first decides to go to the wild bushes and pick some delicious fruit ripe for the taking. Too bad, the first few bushes that he decides to search were all empty, showing clear signs of being picked by someone who came here before. Cursing Lady Luck, he goes to another patch and sees some pretty tasty looking fruits. Taking a bite from one of them, they turn out to be surprisingly tasty. After picking them out, and putting them all in the trolley, Adam decides to head north and hopefully not attract creepy monsters by randomly throwing a rock behind him. Using his Enhanced Vision, he looks around when he reaches the cliffs and tries to spot something worthy of notice.

“F*ck. Lady Luck, I hope you get wrinkly skin when you get old”, spat Adam after searching around but finding only a small bit of ore, which was probably the leftovers of someone who came earlier as well.

Having thoughts about committing suicide, Adam drags his sorry *ss back to town and deposits all his earnings of the day.

Seeing that it’s getting dark, Adam lights his torch and decides to follow the tracks of bandits to hopefully locate and exterminate them. Looking around for around two to three minutes, Adam sees some lights in the distance. Tensing himself up and taking a revolver in his hand, he carefully sneaks all the way to the light. ‘Jackpot, finally. Lady Luck, I hope you stay as fair as beautiful maiden elves, even when you’re old’. Being as shameless as he is, he should’ve been struck by lightning from the heavens but that’s not gonna happen, I think. Finding a thick tree around the campfire of those three bandits, Adam carefully aims at their groins, wanting to know whether they are men of steel or not. There are only three of them, and if he stays hidden in the dark, he can easily shoot them all. But being the creepy dude that he is, he decided to come out and greet them like old friends do. The three bandits are clearly on guard against him and his weird weapons and the first they do upon seeing him is try to surround him for the three directions so that he can’t escape. Seeing them trying to be careful but actually being so obvious Adam decides to forget messing with them and just take care of them before a variable shows up. Using Enhanced Vision and Quick Burst, Adam quickly shoots the 3 of them in the eyes, followed by another three bullets, hitting exactly where the first ones did.
Making quick work of them, Adam decides to grab their leather armour and their bags which might contain something useful. Searching them, he finds a crudely drawn map, which has a few red crosses marked on it. Being the suspicious one, he takes out his own map and decides to mark those locations there as well. Seeing as how one of these marked locations is close to the campsite, Adam decides to go and check it out. After travelling in the dark for 4 minutes, Adam hears creepy old dude laughter from up ahead. Blowing out his torch, he creeps in the darkness, hiding behind the trees and finally catches a glimpse of the place. It was like a large camp, with about 20 or so bandits acting like bandits. Seeing that it’s dark and almost all of them are drunk as f*ck, Adam decides to go into the camp. Hiding in the tent’s shadows and focusing his breathing and footsteps to the minimum, Adam keeps sneaking inside. Suddenly hearing some movements, Adam tenses up, hand on his second, fully loaded revolver. It looks like a bandit just got up to take a p*ss. Realizing that this might be his chance, Adam stealthily circles back into the darkness and cover of the trees and using Enhanced Vision as well as his animal like instincts, he reaches the man who was standing there and removing the excess liquids from his body. Silently, he reaches for his neck with a knife and as fast as he could, slits his throat and puts his hand over the bandit’s mouth. The bandit tried to scream, but he couldn’t do so. Even then, he kicks backwards trying to make a commotion and elbows Adam in the face. Letting go of the knife, Adam kicks him in the balls so hard that it makes a cracking sound. The bandit finally goes to heaven, with two broken nuts as a memento of Adam. Muttering a silent prayer for him, Adam picks up the body and decides to leave and come back later with some more adventurers to clear these camps. Who knows, they might even get to fight an elite or a mini-boss.
Leaving as fast as he could, with the body, Adam runs through the forest in the direction of the town when suddenly his instincts start screaming rapidly. He reflexively throws the bandit’s body behind him and jumps around with his revolver in hand. However, all he sees is an extremely fast black shaded blur. As it passes by the bandit’s body, Adam realized that the bandit was missing his lower body. “F*ck”, saying this, Adam throws his torch at the dark silhouette, and without seeing the result, runs away. Stopping after reaching the town gate, Adam thanks Lady Luck, reports to the guild about the bandit hunting mission being completed and decides to talk to the Guild Master regarding the dark blur.

Rolled 4 for fruit and 2 for ore

 

Spoiler: Ella's Dailies

Unlike the previous day, Ella made sure to wake up at the crack of dawn to avoid being caught in direct sunlight, which was a rather valiant effort on her part. Suffice to say, she also forgot that she was handling an additional task today, one which was particularly time-consuming, so her noble endeavors were in vain. She also ended up getting attacked while mining ore either way so nothing really changed, much to the chagrin of the young lady who'd sacrificed her sleeping time.

It was shortly before noon that Ella found herself --- minus the ores and fruit (she'd made a trip back to the town to hand them in and avoid over encumbering herself) --- sneaking about near the ridges of a sufficiently distant mountain, out of sight and out of mind...or at least, that was what she envisioned. Being dressed in a full suit of armor had its ways of rendering it's wearer extremely unstealthy, after all. She was currently eyeing a collection of plant material and other scraps, haphazardly bundled into a messy excuse of a nest at the edge of her vision. Inside were a few items, three speckled eggs and...well, two rather awkwardly-shaped birds that looked as if they were balding.

Had she not seen those silly looking beaks snatch up a full-grown man and rip him in half, she might've even giggled.

What to do?

While she was fairly confident in the armor's integrity and her escape technique, this was, after all, quite a good distance from the ground. She didn't feel good looking at the ground from where she squatted, and she sure as heck wouldn't feel good hitting it. Something about terminal velocity. So she'd do well to avoid a straight fight.

The nest itself looks pretty flammable...the quest only called for the destruction of the nest, right? So I should be fine as long as I break the eggs and set the nest alight. Humu. But I don't want any egg to splatter on me, so hitting it with a melee weapon is a no-no. But I doubt regular arrows will cut it, and besides I don't have a proper bow with me. Hmm...something that'll leave as little evidence of me behind as possible...

What would Mother do if she were here?

Since she had been simply musing and didn't really expect any answers, the response that followed gave her quite the good scare.

What are these creatures called, child?

That placed a frown on her face; she'd no idea at all. The person handing out tasks had told her when she was accepting it, but she'd classified it as useless information and promptly forgotten it. Something something bird...no, that's not it. It was only two words, and one of them had something to do with color...Ah!

I got it! Toady culture!

...Moldy vulture, but okay. Anyway, a mountain like this can't have enough food if the parents have to leave to scavenge for food. Between that and the relative distance between nests...you know what I mean? Just remember to leave a little message.

Tucked behind the outcrop and hidden in the shade, it took Ella a while to figure out the hint, but when she did, the young girl had to cover her face with a gauntlet to prevent her smile from being spotted, before realizing that her visor had already done so. She waited patiently for a while more, watching as the two vultures took off and disappeared into the distance to hunt...

* * *​

Evening, at the guild's local branch.

"You're in a rather good mood today, aren't you? What happened?"

She couldn't help the wide grin on her face as she replied, mopping the floor.

"Oh, just a successful mission, that's all. Flawless, if I do say so myself."

Locating three nests, looking through the stuff in the them and breaking the nests apart with her hands and feet hadn't taken her very long. She was already at the mountain foot when enraged screams could be heard from the mountainside, but Ella simply sauntered on. She wasn't afraid of being pursued at all, especially not after she moved a little something from each nest to the other ones.

Then again, now that the three former nest owners were literally at each others' throats, each trying to avenge their offspring, what did she have to do with any of it?

 

Spoiler: E-Rank task report

Determined to one day have her own house in this town, Edea starts off this day with construction work, using the skills she learned the day before and slowly but surely improving them as she helps with the construction of a house, giving support in laying the foundation and setting up the house's framework. By the time they are done with the foundation and framework, a good part of the morning has already passed.

After saying farewell to those still busy with construction, she proceeds to leave the town and starts scavenging the surrounding area for fruits and medicinal plants. Her hopes of finding anything usable in medicine are short-lived as she fails to find even the faintest sliver of anything particularly outstanding. Quite a disappointment - she was hoping to make some medicine today - but one can hardly make medicine without ingredients.

Being already out of town, Edea uses the chance and time spent while looking for herbs to also gather whatever firewood she can find, picking up twigs and chopping down some smaller trees with her Blade of Determination,then dismantling them into smaller portions suitable for ovens and campfires. Once she reaches the limits of what she can carry, she proceeds to haul the firewood back to the town before considering what to do the rest of the day.

 

Spoiler: Report

Due to her activity of last night, Xuelin woke up later than her morning routine. For someone who have an occupation closely linked to the night, she was a strange kind of witch who likes to sleep early and wake up early.

A movement was detected near her bed and a fox came to give Xuelin its morning greetings. "You are still here?" The girl wondered out loud, surprised at her familiar still materialized form.
"Did the moon give you some extra energy?" She asked, her hands stoking over its silky smooth fur.

The fox didn't give an answer, but she already knew that was most likely to be the case. Instead, the familiar licked at her left hand, sending an emotion of worry though their bond.
The girl nodded. "It don't hurt anymore," but it does ache a lot, her left arm that is. Fortunately, that does prove the ritual works against her curse. According to her master, Xuelin could live up to her thirties if she could keep up with those ritual and such. However it also means she will still succumb to the curse if she can't find a way to break it.

The witch shook her head, it wasn't the time to think about her troubles when no solution was in sight.
Xuelin promptly changed her clothes and gave a short prayer to the mother nature before she left her room. With a bit of messy hair, the girl did some construction work right after she finished her breakfast. Instead of fixing walls today, she repaired a tall fence that have been ignored for years.

At times, Xuelin really wonder how people feel safe to live around here. For example, she have seen some buildings that looks like they could fall apart at any moment, yet the owner will say 'just fix the walls, it can still stand a year or two.'
There have also been idiots who draw their weapon for a little argument, not to mention how she saw the guild door has already been knocked off before she even arrived.
As a little bonus, Xuelin did ask for some spare hinges and got it to work again. Surely, the guild could spare some extra money for her effort.

Her next task is to make medicine and to do so, Xuelin will have to gather ingredients, the bit she had in her room was simply not enough to make something that would work.

The young witch sets her eyes to southwestern side of the town, from what she know there have been sightings of bandits to the east and north side of this town, that was why she simply picked the place furthest away from danger.
With a fox on her tail, the duo strides onward to the open grassland. Flowers and such was hard to see, as the dry grass got taller than her fox, even Xuelin felt troubled due to the path she picked was rather underused. A sigh escaped her mouth when she finally went through those pricking grass leaves.

While the new area still have wild grass growing around, there was also other kind of plants all around. Using a pair of gloves, Xuelin began to collect mainly two kind of herbs or weeds if you like call them so. One is the Plantain which is pretty much made to be step on, the other one is the ever feared Nettle, the plant are known to burn those who touch it with their bare skin. At last, the witch decided to pick some camomile flowers with her.

After she got the herbs she needed, Xuelin asked her familiar to find some slimes. The fox circled around her feet, happy to finally be called for help, with a sound of agreement it leapt in between the grass wall. Xuelin fellow the down treadled path and came to a small river, from there she could see the some slimes idly lazing around the river.

The witch placed a seed to the ground and used some fairy dust to sprinkle over it, a short chant was recited to the open air and flows of magic sinks into the seed, bringing it to a rapid grow. When the plant of ivy stopped with growing, Xuelin signaled her familiar to lure the slimes.
The fox gave a nod, and went out scare those wobbly slimes, two of which got trapped in the ivy vines.
Xuelin felt a sense of satisfaction when she got the slime gel bottled up, if she took the slimes body fluid after they died, let's just say there wouldn't be much gel as they kind of melt after they dies.

With the last ingredient on hand, Xuelin lifted the spell to free those poor slimes and then they went their way back to the frontier town.

Since Xuelin didn't exactly have a kitchen or something similar to use for her medicine making, she asked the guild staff to borrow their kitchen. Unexpectedly, they did actually guide her to a room.
As the witch went inside, she took a pot out and poured the slime fluid into the pot, a slow fire was lift up, warming the fluid under low heat to concentrate the gel. While the liquid was warming up, Xuelin used a knife to cut the Nettles, Plantains and Moonbell flowers.

She cast a spell to dry the Camomiles, it would be better to have them dry neutrally, but she needed to finish the medicine today. Using a mortar, Xuelin turned the Camomiles into a powder.
Her attention sifted back to the pot, as soon as the gel got the right consistence, she placed it on a new container and left it to cool down.
Next was to turn the rest of her herbs into a paste and mix them together in another bowl. The camomiles were mixes in after, then the cooled slime gel will be added a bit of the time until it was done.
The salve gel became a nice transparent aquamarine, a useful ointment for minor injury like cut and burns but can also be used for rashes too. It have the effect to prevents inflammation, quickens your body's healing ability and also a cooling effect on something like burnt wounds.

Using a small container, Xuelin packed around 20 containers of this healing gel.

 

Spoiler: Finaly, some "potion" making!

Today, Alex woke excited! Why? Ah, just the feeling... Carefully checking on her plank and finding it in the same state, as usual, a small frown flickered before her face split in cheerful smile again.

Oh, well, if its not the plank, it will be something else~

Careless wandering in search of source of this lovely feeling soon brought Alex before notice board of adventurer guild and there, the source revealed itself. Alchemy commission? Hardly, simply an excuse to finally start practicing the craft again.

A quick scan of the notice board left Alex with today's activities planned and leaving the building happy.

First stop on today's journey? Forest. Ahh, what lovely places those are. Brimming with vitality herbs oh, so much like, yet hardly enough to actually attract any beasts of note. On a side note, they are rather well-known places to find wood in, which is also coincidentally a task on the noticeboard for some reason. Oh, well. Easy task to complete, even if a bit tedious as long as Alex is concerned.

And so began a carefree morning walk, with little extra bit of wood gathering and looking for useful herbs, which, unfortunately, seemed to be rather shy today. Somewhere along the way, her hands got too full as branches kept piling up and so, taking a short break in a shaded valley deep inside the forest and with help of convenient vines climbing trees nearby, to reach for the sky, Alex forged her first creation since coming to this place.

[Weird... rope?: F rank]

Well, at least that was what Alex imagined would show up if one of the protagonists of fantasy novels she once loved to read would show up and cast the mighty analyze upon it. As is, there was conspicuous lack of such characters and so, after short wait if any would show up, Alex had to come to terms with the prospect of moving on in search of healing herbs of any kind.

With firewood now secured safely in single stack on her back, she was finally free to pick up pace in search of the mysteriously missing healing herbs. It didn't take too long after that to actually discover some, even if it wouldn't be her first pick if possible. Alas, with no time to waste if Alex wanted to help with cooking for workers today, it would have to do.

Few quick cuts had Alex leaving with a neat stack of goblin roots, a plant so well known for its sickly green and terrible smell, many overlook its more subtle properties. Both poison and healing herb, depending on who handled it. Well, sometimes both. Hopefully that but in separate batches today. If not... Who knows. Let's hope enthusiastic Tee-hee will fix it?

-------

On the way back, Alex dropped off firewood at the guildhall and hid goblin root in one of her alchemy pouches. After all, it was well known for smelling like the critters... Not a good thing to carry into the kitchen.

-------

A quick look over the worksite confirmed the "nothing for you to do here" atmosphere from yesterday indeed wasn't an illusion and so, Alex slipped right into the cooking tent to help out with feeding of workers. Of course, tasting all dishes for accidental poisoning was definitely also a chore that needed to be done.

Inside, Alex found a rather well tucked away corner and got to work. On both her commissions at once ofcourse.

While cutting radishes for soup, quick step back had Alex holding a bowl. Then, before dumping them into the boiling water to form a soup, a little bit of water found its way into the bowl. Someone dumped carrots inside already which... Well, it wasn't ideal. But it should be fine? Not like there were carrot pieces in her water.

Then, when it was her turn to watch the fire to keep soup boiling, a quick flick of the wrist had alchemy pouch whole diving into the bowl of now pleasantly warm water. Which, indeed smelled of carrots a little bit...

Firekeeping gave Alex a lot of time to do things thankfully, and so, untangling pouch, cutting the roots while making sure they stay submerged whole, weighting them down, cooking and mushing them up carefully with the back of one particularly large spoon was all done before it was her turn to once more return to more demanding duties.

Which was alright as that was basically job done. Goblin root was wonderful in basically being health potion in a plant form. Except all the poison...

Welp, cook it and most poison and healing properties is gone and what is left? Well, this particular poison likes to dissolve in the water, and so, the two are separated! Admittedly fairly weak healing powder once dried, well, salve, if you add a bit of water back in. And, if water is collected? Weak poison causing nausea and promoting bleeding. A perfect tool for a hunter! As for why keeping it submerged the whole time? Well... It does smell terrible until dry.

That day, Alex was leaving the work-site with a smile on her face, a pouch of healing powder definitely fit for 10 uses and a vial of poison in her bag. That one, she would keep.

Finally able to practice again. Even if in the kitchen...

 

Rolled 6 for the ore

15 Medicinal Salves (she just did not want to count and left everything she had on her) and one Nest

Spoiler: Report

As expected, Ylae was hungrier than the previous day. Even though she ate a bit more, did she exert more energy? Uh, she was not sure about it. She would say she exerted less effort since she took more time to accomplish her tasks.
Regardless, thanks to her performance, she is allowed to do some D-Rank Tasks as long as she keeps it up. Thus, she decided to go pick up some herbs while gathering firewood, that was the perfect thing to do.

Then, the problem was the lack of tools. Fortunately, people from the Construction Site should have some of them, she could also help them out at the same time. Oh, and borrow a pickaxe to pick up some ore… That is, perhaps, a lot of borrowing… But hey! As long as it gets the job done!

Once she made her plans, she set out to gather medicinal herbs and firewood. Both should be fairly easy to find. Firewood was everywhere but annoying to carry, as for medicinal herbs… well, there is a lot of herbs, but how much of them can be used in medicine? A difficult question to answer. Ylae was not particularly good at spotting which herb was which-- her only criteria was the taste.

“Oh, this one is edible if nothing else…”
When she ends up finding an edible herb that is neither poisonous nor medicinal, she would simply eat it.
“Psh. Poisonous one.”
It was a bit sweet, but unfortunately, this one was poisonous, and therefore she kept it in her inner pocket.
“Bleh. It’s medicine, alright.”
It was not bitter, neither was it sweet. But the texture was disgusting-- truly, she despised it.
After two or three hours, she gathered enough firewood and medicinal herbs, or so she assumed.

However, as she planned to pick up the pile of firewood she gathered, a disgustingly familiar scent caught her attention. Considering she had not picked up any sign of their presence until now, it meant that they are used to sneaking around. The scent alone made her suspicious, but from the way they are acting, she has all the reasons to be wary of them.
As she turned around, her nose continued to sniff and she concluded that there were people but also… a dog? Hopefully, not a hunting dog.

“Man, you lot sure are stinky? Can’t you shower or something?”
Three people showed up, three armed with weapons designed to hunt men rather than animals.
‘The bandits… did I stray off too far from the path? What kind of luck is that… I only wanted to pick up herbs!’

Three bandits and a dog. Likely, the dog will assault her first. There is no way she can outspeed it, therefore, riposting seemed to be the most optimal option. Even though it was obvious, Ylae could not help but be terrified of this situation, she may have hunted a few times, but it never felt pleasant.

“Big games sure hath sharp senses, ey?”
The string swiftly snapped. While being targeted for murder terrified her, being treated as an animal infuriated her. For a few seconds, the latter outweighed the former. Ylae seized a heavy piece of firewood and threw it right at the scum who opened his mouth. Unconsciously, streaks of runes appeared on her arm which significantly boosted her strength.
Her aim never was good, but this time was an exception. The scum’s throat or head was hit by the firewood, and he fell straight to the ground. Her eyes could not properly perceive the situation

“Eh?”
She could not help but think that was a mistake. Did she just kill someone at that moment? Was it supposed to be that quick? Perhaps, he was knocked out or just had trouble breathing... Unfortunately, she did not have the time to reflect on her action that the dog attempted to bite her. Out of habit, she kicked the dog and sent it back a few steps-- leaving her enough time to reach her inner pocket. Then, the beast attempted to bite her again, instead of avoiding it, she stuffed a bunch of herbs into its mouth before bursting one of its eyes with her finger to free her other hand.

Unfortunately, the dog’s fangs pierced her arm before releasing her. The bandits stunned by their comrade’s death immediately rushed at Ylae who started running away. The dog would be knocked out after digesting the henbane, for now, it was confused by its loss of sight. In terms of raw power, Ylae should be able to deal with a bandit fairly easily, nonetheless-- her lack of experience and martial arts made this difficult.
Yet, she had to deal with the bandits whether she liked it or not. Could she let them follow her to town? There was no way she would do that. Though what she did not realize was that there was no way they would jump in the wolf’s den by heading there, they would have turned tail before long.

Therefore with this misunderstanding, she thought she had to turn back and deal with the two left. How? Actually, that was simple but hard to do. Out of nowhere, she turned back and bashed at a bandit’s throat. One down. The other, unfazed, attempted to stab her. His blade merely scratched as Ylae swung her fist to his liver. Then, her leg struck his ankle, thus tripping him.

Finally, he was on the ground but remained alive. Her breath became agitated, her hands scratched her head, and her eyes darted forth and back the bandit and where she left her bag. Unsure about whether to leave him there or not. What if it recovers and hurts someone else?
‘What do I do… what do I do… I should but… I… can’t… I can’t see.’
Closing her eyes, the decision was not to look at what happened and simply-- jump on his ribs, to finish him without looking. While her eyes remained closed, she walked a few steps away from the bandit, then opened them again before puking.

‘God god god… c-calm down… if it… it wasn’t them… it would be you, right. It would… be me. Then… everything’s… good. Yeah… everything’s good.’
To convince herself even further, she thought about how the animals she hunted were much more innocent than them, they killed to live and that was it. If she did not feel that bad about preys, why would she feel awful for bandits? Progressively, she calmed down and stopped in her tracks as she felt her arms sting from the bite.

“Ah… the herbs.”
There was no time to think, she had to retrieve her bag, firewood, and herbs. The most important was the herb, while she did not have the proper tools, some crushing and mixing will have to do. She never tried this and thus will haphazardly try to reduce the pain. Nonetheless, before preparing the herb, she needed to clean her wound.

‘They are worse than beasts… it’s alright…’
She searched through the first bandit’s affairs and found some water and coins. Immediately, she realized he was merely knocked out, having trouble breathing. Unlike the two others, he could live-- no, impossible, she should not. Unwilling to see, she jumped, finishing that monster off.

Then, she cleaned her wound, then did her job, wrapping it with a ripped cloth.
‘Huh… I guess I accomplished a task by cleaning those bandits…’
If she paid enough attention, she would have known that they came from the East and the North, unfortunately, all she knew was that bandits were blocking a trade route. Regardless, that is less medicinal salves to make.

Anyhow, following that, she searched through the bandits’ affairs and took coins and weapons. She did not know exactly what to do with the latter, all she knew was that she could not leave them here.
Predictably she half-closed her eyes while coursing through their pockets, unwilling to see their dead faces. As for the dog? She did not even check whether it was still alive or not. Certainly, she did not wish to know.

Finally, she returned to the guild with the gathered firewood and the bandits’ affairs. She left a bit more than half of the money, but left all the weapons there, not knowing what to do with them. Perhaps it could be useful to someone, who knows. Either way, it is better in the guild’s hands than the bandits’.
She still had to make the medicinal salves and help with the construction work. Oh, and pick up some ores, if she’s lucky, she can save up quite a lot.

[Gathering Firewood & Subjugating Monsters done.]

As soon as she arrived at the construction site, she asked the chief if she could borrow a few things to make medicine. At first, they seemed reluctant, but once they heard the word medicine, they did not hesitate a second. She had enough to make 15 salves, a bit more than what is necessary.
Swiftly she started her work, a bit clumsily but at least she knew what she was doing. While it was heating, she took this opportunity to clean herself up with some water, wiping the dirt, blood, and scratches. Briefly, she was surprised at the surprising… lack of blood, she thought that kill-- finishing someone’s life would be bloodier than that. She supposed it was due to the blunt hits and throat punches. It is rather squishy after all.
Quickly, she stopped thinking about it and continued to work on her medicinal salves. When it was cooling, she tried to clean her clothes in naught. There was a need to buy some new ones.

Then, after the medicinal salves were finished, she helped with the construction work by carrying heavy materials and more than the previous day. Likely to thank them for allowing her to borrow the kitchen.
Later on, she asked if she could borrow a pickaxe. The manager for the construction site told her it was a bit late to mine but since she insisted, they gave it up. Since misfortune followed her throughout this day, she thought she might get lucky on mining!
At the thought of luck, her legs accelerated more and more as she headed towards the ore cliffs. Tomorrow, she is definitively getting a sore body.

[Construction Work Assistance done.]

Alas, she arrived at the ore cliffs and began cracking rocks-- hoping to end on something precious. It was exhausting for sure, but might be worth the pain. Surprisingly, after a dozen minutes flew away, she found semi-precious stones.

‘Perhaps I should be unlucky more often…’
That thought vanished from her mind as promptly as it appeared. Her face beamed, finally a bit of fortune today! Happily, she departed, staying longer in order to crack more stones could be useful, but also dangerous. And she had enough of danger for the day! Nothing happened, therefore, it was better to run quickly before some odd scent approaches.

The time to rest and reflect on all her actions lies at the tavern. Let’s forget about everything until then. After passing by the construction site to return the pickaxe, such a long day ended at the guild with about fifteen medicinal salves and semi-precious stones.

[Gather Ore & Mix Medicinal Salve done.]

 

Rolled 5, monsters summoned and defeated. (With @Haxagen )

Batch of 20

Spoiler: Report

A familiar location, a familiar task, a familiar sense of soreness from a familiar feeling in her hands...

...deja vu.

"Not agaaaaaaaaain! I told you, I don't know any Unu or whatsit! Bugger off!"

Having learnt her lesson from the previous day, Ella was at the ore cliffs nice and early today, when the sun wasn't brutally hot, and she could actually tolerate mining in full armour.

Unfortunately, she still ended up being pursued by monsters again. Merely two this time round, but the creatures today looked as if they were born of stone and metal. Definitely not like the pushovers from yesterday.

Oh, and each of them was almost the same size as her in her bulky armour. Plus, the grounds near the ore cliff were rather perilous to fight at.

So naturally the young lady fled for more even ground, with two Ore Elementals (E-rank) chasing her.
---
Whistling jauntily, Lothar was making his way home with a basket of precious ores slung over his back, when suddenly, he heard a familiar voice.

Slowly turning, his facial expression quickly morphed from relaxation to stupification on his face at this absurd repeat of a situation that had occurred nary a day before.

"...Bleedin' hell, seriously? Wot is this, then?" Shaking his head, he quickly unslung his basket of ores, placing it next to a conveniently placed rock.

"I swear, if this is some damned ploy to steal the fruits of mine labour..."

Shaking his head, he quickly made his way over to see what was going on.
---
Having learnt a lesson from yesterday, Ella hadn't brought along a basket for collecting fruits, and neither had she collected any yet. Since both her arms were freed up, she was able to flee in a slightly more graceful manner compared to the day before. Of course, her armor didn't magically lighten so her escaping speed was just about the same.

The young lady cussed as she tripped over nothing, wasting seconds to right herself and allowing her pursuers to close the distance. Having entered melee range, one of the ore elementals raised a limb that was bulky enough to pass off as a club.

"F*ck!"

At the last second, Ella rolled out of effective reach, causing the arm to slam into the ground --- and her backpack popped open, spilling the ores she'd collected everywhere.

"..."

Two parties stared at each other. One of them was mute and the other wasn't in the mood to say anything. So the trio just stood there, silently, not making any moves.
---
"...You again? What's going on here?"

From behind, Lothar's voice rang out, as he cautiously inched his way to the standoff.

Coming to a stop a few metres away, he gazed at the ore elementals and back at the weird knight, pondering upon this strangely familiar scenario.

He didn't know what was going on here, but he would prefer to avoid riling up the ore elementals if possible. Hacking at them in an attempt to dispel their spirits was not entirely ineffectual, but it was a pain in the ass and would dull his blade more than he wished. He could just turn back while he could, since the ore elementals seemed to primarily have beef with Ella alone, but he wasn't to sort to leave someone to be pummeled alone by animated heaps of rock and ore just because it was...admittedly, really bloody inconvenient.

He hoped he didn't have to check his blade for dents after this.

"Alrighty, Miss...Ella, yes? Care to explain what you did you do to earn the ire of these fine gentlefolk here? I would prefer not to get into a brawl with animated heaps of rock and ore just because I'm not heartless enough to see someone get pummeled by them, thank you very much."

Folding his arms akimbo, he placed a quizzical gaze upon.Ella's helmet.
---
"That's what I wanna know! Getting jumped first thing in the morning while I was minding my own business, how rude! I don't even know if they understand human, so I couldn't exactly ask how I offended them, could I? All I know is that these guys seem to be looking for something, but I haven't the foggiest why. Sheesh."

Though she recognized the owner of the voice coming from behind, Ella made the choice to keep her eyes on the two ore elementals she was staring down (did ore elementals have eyes?) for two reasons. She was not out of immediate danger, and the ores she'd taken all morning to mine were still on the floor.

The arm holding her shield slowly shifted to her back, out of the elementals' line of vision (hopefully), and that hand closed around a piece of yellowish material that seemed to have popped out of nowhere. Tiny strands of lightning occasionally crackled on it's surface.

On the other hand, one of the ore elementals seemed to take it's vision off of Ella, and stared instead at Lothar...or rather, it seemed to stare at something much further behind him.
---
"I see..." Lothar scratched his head, pondering on what could have possibly set these ore elementals into a standoff.

He proceeded to tense as he saw Ella secretly preparing a spell of some sort. Just in case, he thought to himself. Hopefully, her precaution would remain just that- a precaution.

Then, he became truly worried as he felt the inhuman gaze of the ore element brush past him, before...going past him? Briefly, he felt compelled to turn to check, but ultimately he decided against it, lest it proved to be enough of an opening for the elementals to strike.

Thus, he maintained his attention upon the situation.
---
The silent standoff dragged on, and just as Ella was about to ditch what little cordiality she had and attack---

Not now, child.

She paused. The elemental at the front had slowly lifted a hand, and was pointing.

"..."

Ella slowly turned her head, following the direction of the finger, and when she traced it's path all the way, she noticed what it was pointing to. A single piece of ore with small crystalline pieces twinkling on it's surface.

At that point, she'd have to be an idiot not to understand what it wanted. Though understanding didn't make her any happier, she hadn't had the time to voice her dissent before the pointing finger moved, away from the stationary ore and behind her. Turning her head to follow, she once again traced it all the way, and furrowed her brows.

Unless she was blind, the elemental was pointing directly at Lothar, and she didn't need to know Elementalese to know that it wasn't pleased.
---
Lothar's head followed the elemental's finger, and as he turned his head he similarly realised what it truly wanted.

"Of course...what else would an ore elemental possibly want from a miner?"

However, while he knew the elementals weren't pleased, he was even more unamused by the demand.

"Look, I can even make an exception for Ents and Wood Elementals...but seriously? Could you please make a more reasonable demand than this? Ore isn't bloody animate by nature, at least trees are living beings. I'm not forfeiting my working man's pay and making my merry way home empty-handed, alright? I'm willing to listen, but you have to be willing to understand!"

The more he spoke, the more the anger that rose in his heart. He knew that it would likely piss the elementals off, but really he was so legitimately angered by these literal numbskulls- after all, he doubted they had anything that served as a brain up there- that any veneer of civility had been thrown to the wind in favour of venting the bubbling displeasure of basically getting robbed by a bunch of barely sentient spirits of all things.

Even legitimate robbers would be better in fact- at least they would be using the ore to exchange for gold. What the bloody hell would a bunch of ore elementals preserve ore for? They wouldn't bloody grow like trees with any amount of care, damnit!
---
Ah, so that's why they appeared huh...

Ella mused to herself, understanding. Naturally, she wasn't keen on having to sacrifice a portion of her spoils for no good reason either.

Well, now that we have clearly declined, confrontation is unavoidable...who cares? A mere E rank stone dumbass wants to take my ore? Forget about it!

The elemental at the front charged her just as she lifted her shield, but instead of rolling away this time the girl dug her heels into the ground.

*Clang!*

Her parrying skills were a little rusty, but she managed to pull it off anyway. Following that, she struck out with the longsword...and it bounced off leaving merely a chip.

"Tch! This will take a bit---hey, old man, can you handle the other one?"
---
That tirade of his seemed to give the ore elementals pause. Looking at each other, they seemed to consider his argument, though it was just as likely that they were planning on how to murder them. Maybe both? It was hard to tell with their inscrutable countenances- or rather, lack thereof.

Regardless, Lothar wasn't left guessing for long as a thick appendage of stone swung his way soon enough.

"Bah! Not like I can exactly refuse to fight, yes?"

Voiding the blow with a step back with the left leg, Lothar quickly unsheathed his two-handed scimitar- with a sudden burst forth by drawing his left leg back to the front, he quickly transitioned into a rising draw cut that flew from the sheath on the left of his belt, chopping firmly into the ore elemental's gravel covered head.

To warriors from Ashina, this was known as the Nukitsuke, The Flowing Cut, and they were well-known for it, though it was not unknown out of it. For example, the Sicilians knew it as the Guardia Prima.

Keeping up the pressure, drawing back his sword to above his right shoulder with a turning of the arms, Lothar launched a wrathful, descending rightward chop that hammered right into the noggin of the ore elemental, who was left temporarily bedazzled by the combination of moves that would be ended a frailer being, loosened pebbles and gravel falling from its head to reveal the corner of an uncut ruby, glowing eerily red.

"Huh. I suppose do you have something in that non-existent headspace of yours. Figured that it would be-"

Rushing forward, Lothar slammed the pommel of his scimitar straight into the ore elemental's chest.

"As inflexible as your stubbornness!"

By nature, ore elementals were ponderous like lead, thus low to recover and react and he faced little resistance apart from the prodigious weight of the ore that composed its being. Comically, the ore elemental stumbled back, trying futilely to balance itself as its facsimile of a mind attempted to process the sudden assault it had received.

"Git him, Knight!"
---
In the meantime, Ella played Jenga with her ore elemental. In a way. She chipped the opponent at the shoulders and knees repeatedly with her sword, and as expected, while the metallic parts of the elemental held the stone parts did not. So when the stone parts crumbled; well.

Watching the limbless elemental flail about was rather entertaining, but she sent it on it's merry way shortly after.

So when the old man called for her, she grabbed the nearest weapon capable of dealing crushing damage --- and promptly whacked the other downed elemental in the noggin with it.

*Bonk*

Yeah, that weapon happened to be the arm of the now-departed elemental.

"Go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep..."

By the time her makeshift weapon crumbled from overuse, so did the elemental's head and a good portion of it's upper chassis.

"Whew! That wasn't so bad."
---
Lothar shook his head, sighing as he gazed mournfully upon the small chips on his now blunted blade.

"I suppose."
---
Daily Checklist
Cleaning of Guild Hall
Help with Construction
Mining! Good haul, though had to spend some time polishing up my blade...
Tincture Boiling Sold a batch of two-dozen.
---

 

Spoiler: Report

Elytra said I should try helping cleaning today, that it would be safer if I were to stay inside the city for a while longer... Wasn't that the dangerous part, though? Wouldn't I just hurt someone if I stayed inside...?

"You're not going to hurt anyone! It'll be okay! The people here all seem like good people, so less talking and more moving!" Why is she always shouting... I don't like shouting... Shouting hurts...

'I'm doing it, I'm doing it... Don't hurt me...' I ended up getting a broom and started cleaning up a bit... It was kinda big and hard to wield though, but it was going to be alright... I just needed to be careful and not hit anything... It'll be...

Ah... I hit the ink of the receptionist... It fell over her desk... That was bad... It was really bad...

I felt a hand on my had... It wasn't hard, but gentle... "You don't need to cry, little girl. It's just some ink, okay? I'll clean the desk up, so keep trying your best, alright?"

I looked up towards the voice of the receptionist woman... She was smiling, she wasn't angered, she was not scary... She looked nice... "Remember to thank her for her kindness!" Elytra told me... Please don't shout...

I bowed to the receptionist woman before getting back to cleaning, I was more careful than before. One step at a time, one corner at a time... I was getting tired, but there was still more to clean... Why is this hall so big...?

"Here." The receptionist woman again... She was holding a mug, and it had a colorful liquid inside it... "It's some juice. Drink it up and rest a bit. You can continue later... You shouldn't overdo it, girlie." She was kind... That was so strange...

"Take it. It's fine, she offered it." Elytra told me to, so it should be fine, right? I held the mug with both of my hands, smiled towards the receptionist a bit, then drank the liquid... It was tasty... It was really nice and tasty... Kinda like a fruit, but liquid... I liked this, "If you work well, you'll be able to drink a lot more of this, so try your best, Ellya!"

'W-will I really!?' I asked her.

"Yes! It's fine to take a break, but make sure to get back to it once you're rested! There's still plenty more to clean after all!" Elytra really could be a bit softer, but... It didn't hurt this time, it was nice to hear her say this...

'I'll do my best!' I then drank the rest of the juice, gave the mug back to the receptionist, then sat down for a bit, and watched people come and go... It was quite the sight... There were so many of them. Moving left and right, going to the receptionist and then out again... Some were looking happy, some eager, some sad, and some... Were bloodied... Looking really bad... Crying... It was... Relatable... It was so-

"Break time is over!!!" Aaaaaaaah!! Don't shout like that... "Get moving! Get moving! Time waits for no one! Cleaning time! One two, one two!" Why the sudden numbers...?

I got up and went back to cleaning... It was mostly uneventful. I got it done before dusk, and the receptionist gave me some more shiny things for my job... Was this enough? Would Elytra be happy with this?

"Yeah, I'm happy. Now come on. Let me show you what a proper meal looks like." I couldn't quite understand, but I went the way she told me to go...

 

Day 2 Points Tally:

Today, @AliceShiki gains 6 Growth Points for a total of 6.
@Fossil is kicking into gear, gaining 22 Growth Points for a total of 30. Fit for higher duty.
Thank you for the hard work, @Cyjuga, you gain 18 Growth Points for a total of 57 points! Rank 2 on the leaderboard and Fit for duty.
@UndyingSLIME10295 infiltrates a bandit hideout after a productive day, gaining 15 points for a total of 23. Fit for another attempt! Make sure to bring your friends over.
@Haxagen has another (un)lucky day at the mines, and takes it out on the bandits for 27 Growth points and a total of 53. Rank 3 on the leaderboard, and Fit for duty.
Another day, another 8 Growth Points to @Quaesitor for a total of 24. Still in Fit condition.
@Siostar takes on the crafts and gains a total of 8 Growth Points for a total of 16. Fit for duty.
@Little Evil takes cooking to a new degree with alchemy and gains 13 GP for a total of 21. Interesting numbers, making you quite Fit nonetheless.
@Naraku is all over the place, but successfully so. Gains 28 GP for a total of 43. Fit for higher duty!
Good old @Way gains 28 GP for a total of 64. The current rank 1 is yet again Fit for higher duty!

Housing tally update:

@Cyjuga 3/30 days
@Siostar 3/30 days
@Way 3/30 days
@Naraku 2/30 days
@Little Evil 2/30 days
@Quaesitor 2/30 days

Day 3 has started!

Two new tasks have been added, while others will be put up for discussion before posting:

E rank:

Adventurer Assistance
Description: Assist another adventurer daily in any role parties can agree on. The assistance is considered contractual, and will be rewarded over long-term.
Reward: 2 Growth Points Daily, and an additional 14 Lucky Growth Points for every 4 days per week the service is provided. Additional reward applies to both assistant and assisted.

D Rank:

Guild Assistance
Description: The understaffed guild is accepting aid in places such as the tavern, and materials processing desk. {{Players are required to fulfill this task IC by either taking on the role of barkeeper or waiter/waitress in the tavern, or appraising loot brought over by other adventurers in the Freeform Role-play thread}}
Reward: 2 Lucky Growth Points Daily (do not count toward maximum). The reward is doubled every second day, and quadrupled every fifth, after which the bonus resets. Coordinate shifts with other adventurers before starting the task.

Check this post for additional information on updates.

Updated task:

Gather Ore (E Rank)
Description: The surrounding cliffs often drop rocks that can be cracked open to reveal metal ore or semi-precious stones. Grab a pickaxe and maybe get lucky! Be careful, because humanoid monsters also gather ore in this area (if two people get lucky one after the other, thieving monsters arrive to fight them; if another person gets lucky while monsters are active, another monster group arrives).
Reward: 2 Growth Points. Roll a d6 once during the task. A result of 5+ provides 10 lucky Growth Points, due to finding valuable materials. Results of 3+ provide 3 lucky Growth Points.

 

Spoiler: Report

Properly getting the hang of things now, Ruby and I head out to the plains yet again in search of fruits. We stumbled across a huge bush this time, which seemed to have a bird's nest in it. Luckily the bird wasn't home, otherwise we'd definitely lose an eye. Taking a few handfuls and putting them into my satchel, we set off in search of other bushes, hopefully more of the medicinal variety.

Around an hour later, we successfully found another bush, this time on the smaller side close to a river. The fruits were berries of a pale blue color, and rather bulbous. Grabbing a few of them, we marched on towards the other side.

Another bush, another kind. This time white, with red spots. Sure hope they're not poisonous. ...There aren't any poisonous fruits around here, right? Ah, right, and it was shaped similar to an apple. Very peculiar. Well, not like I'm getting paid to think about why they look that way. Actually, am I even getting paid?

Monetary crisis aside, Ruby found the bush this time. It was a lime green fruit, about as big as a watermelon. Actually...it was a watermelon. In the plains. Yep, magic exists, so why not plains watermelons? Next thing you know, there'll be a cactus here too.

Why are there so many kinds of fruit? Now we've found a black fruit with a thick skin, about a centimeter thick, with a small, sour center. It also stinks. We gathered some anyway, because some people might think it's exotic and therefore more expensive. Maybe it's useful in cooking. I don't know, and I don't care. All I know is that we need fruits, and I'm to gather them.

Knowing that I need to make some salves later too, I grab a few medicinal plants to be used as anti-rheumatics, anti-inflammatories, blood clotting agents, and some to induce sweating. I primarily gathered the leaves, even some of the dried up ones in case someone wanted to make some tea out of them. As we made our way back to the hall we ate some of the fruits and were utterly disgusted.

I know that these are meant to be medicinal fruits, but did they need to give us the runs?! We ran, quickly, back to the guild hall, and gave them the fruits before rushing for our respective bathrooms. Once inside, we could hear each other's sigh of relief.

After coming back out, we got to work on making the salves. The one that we ate, the white with red spots, was smashed and spread onto the leaf that helped clot blood. I don't know what it does, but I don't care. I just don't want to see the fruit ever again. Ever. Ruby gives it a nice toast, too, just for good measure. Hopefully we won't be the ones to use this.

Moving on, the blue berry was mashed normally and applied to an anti-rheumatism leaf. They both work well with aches and pain, so it should be good. No adverse effects could possibly occur, right? Right? ...Maybe I should add a disclaimer to my salves. That sounds a like a good idea. Hopefully the guild will let me.

The watermelon...I'll be honest, I don't think this has any medicinal properties. I'll just add it to the tea for some flavor. Not much else I can do. Maybe the rind could be used for cooling properties on a burn? Meh. I'll submit it as such.

The black fruits insides could be used directly on a wound, helping it clean out in exchange for some pain and suffering. And stench. God it still smells horrible. I'll need to clean out my satchel. Maybe I should just have Ruby burn it and buy a new one.... That's far too tempting.

Our final fruit was spread on the remaining leaves.

Anyway, Ruby and I learned a very important lesson today. There is a fine line between medicine and poison. I also signed up to later take charge of the tavern.

I also quickly report that I helped a girl, whose name I do not know but features I described, with fighting off some bandits as Ruby and I collected some ore.

Rolled a 6 for fruit, 4 for ore.

 

Spoiler: Ella's Diary

Dear Diary,

Today was a pretty bussin day, I suppose. My long sword was pretty much rendered into scrap metal yesterday, so today I decided to take a few less combat-oriented tasks. Like, a girl's gotta have her quality downtime, you know? Actually, why am I talking to an inanimate object? Sheesh! I gotta go look for some sentient notebook to write in one of these days.

Anyway, I decided to wake up at a more humanly acceptable time (dawn is nowhere remotely friendly!) and mopped up the building after a nice breakfast of...what was it again? Some sort of rolled oats with milk? Can't believe I'm already missing Mother's horrid cooking...ahem. Anyway, since most of the dismantling stuff tended to come back after lunch, when the bulk of adventurers return with their hunted prey, I figured I'd try my hand at making some of them healing items. It can't possibly be that hard...oh yeah, Mother did say that the stuff in my flask doesn't heal humans, so I can't just refill 20 doses of the stuff. Are humans that fragile? Sheesh, looks like I'll just have to make do with...what's that? Beer doesn't count as healing items? Oh, come on! If we exclude that as well, the only options left are miracles or magic, and I don't think either is going to satisfy what the task wants, tsk. Besides, even if I could somehow cast it, Mother would probably rip me to pieces for carelessly using miracles.

<intelligible scribbling that's been cancelled out>

Ah, but of course! If the pure form is too much for regular people to handle, then all I have to do is to convert it to a form that's suitable for consumption, and if this thing turns out to be a success...! Dear me, this intellect of mine...sometimes it scares me, ohoho. I'll go to the market to look for something suitable right now!

Praise the f*cking sun! Fufufu...I had to purchase a few samples before I found the herb that could withstand soaking without turning into ashes, but it's done! It's rather cheap in the first place, and refilling my flask literally costs me nothing! Oh, but I should change the form of delivery of the herb to something a little more dignified, since the herb's effects by itself isn't really much to write home about...I'll grind it up to powder and add some cheap food coloring. Yellow should be good; as for the name, let's call it Starglitter! In this way, the dangers of users spontaneously combusting from overuse should vanish as well, since the amount to be applied is controlled every time and the relative purity has decreased...yeah, I should go test it out, shouldn't I? I'll go hunt down a goblin later.

...Oh dear, that didn't go quite as well. Anything more than lacerations refused to mend unless I increased the dosage, and shortly afterwards the subject underwent immolation. Tsk tsk. It seems that I'll need a stabilizing agent of some sort to calm the essence of flames. I'll consult Mother and see if she's got any ideas.

But of course! Thank you, Mother! It's really obvious once you've pointed it out.

The test was a success! I made another trial dose and stuck it in absolute darkness for about 30 minutes before testing it out on a goblin. Don't worry, they gave their lives in the name of science! Anyways, I was able to apply five times as much powder on a large wound before the poor fellow caught on fire, but no worries! Now I just gotta make enough doses for 20 batches and a little more, then leave them in the darkness for three hours! Once the other adventurers come back from their hunts, I'll try a little out on someone with mild injuries, and if that's fine I'll just make them in smaller doses for milder injuries! And the production costs is cheap as hell, but I can probably exaggerate it a little...huehue. This kind of intoxicating feeling is somewhat dangerous...anyway, if nothing else happens, I'll update you again tonight, after I go ore mining in the evening! Take that, monsters!


...Nothing happened tonight, It was all good. I didn't run into any monsters at all. It was a calm, peaceful stroll with a little breeze. Yes. Nothing of note happened, after all. That's right, nothing at all, I swear.

 

Spoiler: Report

E-Rank Tasks (Gather Fruits, Gather Ore, Construction Work Assistance):

Looking through the available tasks I see some new ones.
"Interesting." I said.
After thinking for a while about which ones to take... I still choose the same tasks as yesterday, and the day before yesterday.
"I mean they are the most lucrative in my eyes" I remarked.
Taking on the tasks I head over towards the constriction site.
Today they had no metals to smelt, so I was again a transport shuttle.
Flying from one site and to the other is somewhat boring, but at least I can look at the beautiful scenery while flying.
Finished with my last transport I flew off towards the plains.
It didn't take long to find a bush with fruits.
While flying, I noticed I can fly faster every day since it took just half the time to come here then what it took on the first day.
I also started growing.
I'm already three meters long in my dragon form.
So anyway, I fly towards the bush and pick the fruits.
Today I found just normal fruits.
Finished with that task I make my way towards the cliffs.
Taking the shiniest rock I could find, I drop it from the air and collect the ores after it shattered on the ground.
Special ores is what I found today.
"What are these monsters doing here?".
After picking up the ores and fighting the monsters I flew off towards my next task.

Spoiler: Report

D-Rank Task (Subjugate Monsters):

Finished with my E-Rank tasks I start searching for some bandits to kill.
Today I wanted to try the flying flamethrower tactic.
I already had bought new spices.
BBQ party the second, is what I would like to name my task today.
The first time from the day before yesterday doesn't really count as BBQ after I thought about it.
That was more like smoking the meat, like smoked fish.
So in search for bandits I already prepared the spices and took them in my claws.
Flying for some time I noticed something that looks like a bandit nest.
I scouted the camp for a bit and then prepared myself for the BBQ.
I drop from the sky and spew my fire dragon breath towards a tent that then started to burn.
I flied back in the sky and noticed the bandits running towards the burning tent.
They looked around but couldn't find me since I'm in the sky. "There! In the sky!" shouted a bandit.
"Oh, looks like they noticed me." I thought.
A few bandits pulled out bows and started firing arrows at me.
Since I am quite high in the sky, and the sun is behind me which obscures their vision, the arrows don't hit me.
Not watching on for too long I dive again and spew my fire dragon breath again, setting them on fire.
Oh, I also threw some spices on them.
"Ahhh, it's hot! Waah what is that? MY EYES!" a bandit screamed.
"Oh, looks like I hit a bandit in the eyes with the spices." I noticed.
I take advantage of the situation and quickly stab a bandit in his back with my claws.
I drag him together with me to the skies.
He is already dead since I pierced his heart from behind.
Arriving at a few meters above the burning bandits I threw him back towards a bandit on the ground that wanted to shoot an arrow at me. The arrow hit the bandit in the head... not that it mattered he was already dead.
"Oh, I should eat shashlik today!"
I thought while seeing the pierced bandit.
While all that happened most off the bandits were already dead with lots of burn marks on them.
After all a dragons flame is not a normal flame.
The last survivor, which was the one that made shashlik out of the already roasted bandit, dropped his bow and started to run away while screaming.
Not wanting to waste any more time I quickly flied towards him and sliced his head off with my claws.
Throwing the head towards the burning tents I take a last look and notice the smell off burned meat mixed with different spices and started to get hungry.
"I should finish this task quickly and order some meat at the tavern."
I said to myself.
Flying off I search for another bandit nest.
It didn't take long to find another bandit nest.
There were some tents and something that looked like a warehouse.
Interested in the warehouse I flied down behind a tree and transformed back to my human form.
I took out a Ring with transformation magic and made myself look like a bandit from the last camp.
I then started running towards the camp and shouted "There are some monsters out there, help my comrades! We will pay you with a lot of gold!" while pointing towards the way I came from.
I then started to collapse near the entrance of the camp and pretended to be unconscious.
The bandits were at first alerted by the shout, but then quickly became exited when I mentioned gold.
They quickly prepare some weapons and rush off towards the direction I pointed while ignoring me.
Opening my eyes again I notice that I'm completely alone in the camp.
I quickly make my way towards the warehouse that I saw and looked what is inside.
"Ohhh, what is that?" I saw a bit of gold here and there which I put in my Inventory and a lot of barrels.
Looking inside the barrels I find out that it is gunpowder, a lot of gunpowder.
I had an idea and started to take the gunpowder and poured it all over the camp while placing some barrels here and there.
I was just finished with it when I heard someone shout "Hey, where are you?! There were no monsters or people!".
Quickly going out of the camp from the other side with a torch in hand, that I found in the warehouse, I started to head in to the forest and hid behind a tree.
I waited till everyone was inside the camp and transformed back to my dragon form and flied back in to the air.
I then took the torch and lit it with fire.
Throwing the torch down towards the camp I quickly flew further away.
I then heard a loud BOOM and saw a large explosion.
"Explosion is art!" I said.
Waiting for the flames to die down I fly back towards the bandit nest to look if anyone survived.
There were no survivors, as expected.
Finished with my tasks I fly back towards the town to report my tasks.

 

Spoiler: Report

More and more people have taken up the construction work recently, Xuelin wonder to herself if the town wanted to rebuild as many houses as possible before the coming winter, she will agree that will be a good idea should that be the case. The girl guessed that if a big storm was to pass by, half of the dwelling area will collapsed, nevermind a snow storm that could bury people alive. Then again, Xuelin have only been here less than a week, she couldn't possibly know the weather change of this frontier.

With some experience under her belt, Xuelin managed to do her job with more effectively compared to her first day. It was indeed a good sign of improvement! But just why does she stick to this task she wonder, obviously the girl will have to travel one day, if she ever make the house, what should her ever do with it?

Oh.. it was time to do her next task already, dismantling that is...
She checked out each monster she have to work and couldn't help but to lament the damage those materials have suffered. Just how many idiots has cut their catch from as if they want mice them! Do they have any idea how much value those materials can have?!
There was just too much waste, that Xuelin regretted her choice of work for tonight... well she did gain some good stuff, though.

 

Rolled 5 for the ore
Was assisted by @Fossil in Free Form during the Gather Ore task

20 salves

Spoiler: Report

A night troubled with nightmares, for sure, it did not start well. However, when her mind turned to ores, she cheered up a bit. Perhaps if she goes as early as possible, she will become lucky once again.

Of course, before going to the Ore Cliffs, she bought a few sets of clothes and a little pickaxe to crack rocks. That was perfect! Everything should have gone well! Early, still a bit dark, who would bother her?

Bandits. Of course, bandits. Nonetheless, she did find what she sought for, precious stones to sell. Luckily enough, to deal with the bandits, she received the assistance of an adventurer by the name of whatever-his-name-since-he-left-before-asking (@Fossil) though she did describe his appearance in her report. Anyhow, she returned from the cliff with a severe flesh wound on her upper-arm and a light one on her back and a ruined set of cloth.

Before going into town, she threw away this set of cloth and wore a new one. Deeply, she hoped she would not ruin a set every day, it will become more costly than her food expenses. For now, let’s avoid the East and the North as much as possible. Once again, she will gather firewood, medicinal herbs and construction work site.

Although, before that, she had to clean her wound. She needed to get alcohol and a few rolls of linen in order to take care of it. A few dozen of minutes, as soon as she bought everything she needed, she cleaned her wounds with ease and bandaged the everything with no problems.

“...I may have messed up on my back.”
Unfortunately, she never exercised from her own volution, thus bandaging the wound on her back was rather difficult. Now then, she decided to head towards the South or the West, a coin flip will solve this solution.

Firewood had become a bit harder to gather than the herbs. Though, there seems to be much more poisonous herbs than medicinal ones. Rather unfortunate as it meant she will require more time to recover the necessary materials to make the two batches of medicinal salves.

The corners of her mouth twitched.
“Geh! My tongue is numb!”
Though, this also meant that such occurrences were meant to happen more often than before. Although, she did not particularly dislike it. This feeling of numbness, as long as it remains weak, felt exceptional. That might have been the true reason she decided to recognise herbs by taste rather than any other senses.

“God-- it stings!”
Of course, there are some Ylae just outright despises. Unfortunately, they were the majority of the herbs found in her village’s vicinity. Which was why she stopped studying herbology, likely. Either way, she would have stopped at some point, because she always does.
“Oh, ah, some sweetne-- wait no!”
She spit it out before something dangerous occurred. Coughing and rubbing her throat, she regretted for a few seconds her way of distinguishing herbs. Such fleeting regrets are rarely taken into consideration. After a few hours, Ylae finally obtained all the herbs she required in order to make the medicine. Though regarding the firewood, it should take a bit more time as she was too focused on the herb this time.

A yawn escaped her mouth.
“Darn it.”
Truthfully, she used to sleep much more than that, from ten to twelve hours a day, however, recently, she has barely been getting six. At some point, the exhaustion had to catch her. Yet, she still had her tasks to accomplish.

“There should be a few herbs…”
In such cases, she could make some medicine to temporarily ease this bothersome sensation. Fortunately, it was not so severe she required medicine to solve her problem. Clapping her cheeks, she started gathering firewood, the same amount as usual. Then, she headed back to the guild, handing out the firewood she gathered.

“Alright, Construction Work now.”
Her feet stumbled but without failing she reached the construction site and spoke to the manager.
“Hey, hey~ Do you mind if I borrow the kitchen again?”

They shook their head and smiled at her question. Though their eyebrows furrowed once they saw something.

“What’s that on your arm?”
“Who knows? I got drunk last night, but all I know is that I woke up with this.”
Then, the manager shrugged and decided to let it go since there was no way to check without removing the bandages. Ylae had prepared an excuse-- ignorance and alcohol. Certainly, those two together were quite compatible.

Like the two previous days, Ylae carried materials, same amount, no more no less, as if she was not injured. Once it was done, she returned to the kitchen and deliberated about what to make. Aside from medicine. The first choice that came to mind was pain suppressors. It will be certainly needed in the next days or weeks to come, her wound will continue to hurt under moderate effort.

First and foremost, she made the twenty medicinal salves. These were not the same herbs as last time, therefore she was a bit unsure about the intensity of the effect. She would need guinea pigs and time to test, and she had neither. For some seconds, she thought about making tinctures but it was too time-consuming so unless she had her own equipment, it was impossible.
The night was coming, and so was her hunger. Only after a while did she finish the twenty salves and some others for her own usage. Checking that she had not forgotten anything, she looked around and then nodded to herself before heading to the guild.

 

20 handed in.

Spoiler: Report

Having had enough of horses for now, Edea decides to spend this day a little differently from the previous few. The morning is still the same - with her assisting in construction. This time, she is helping with the construction of several half-timbered houses, each with a stone foundation. The foundation itself is quite simple - a standard foundation, with the rocks placed on top of each other and held together with mortar. The only thing of note is that various holes are left in the foundation, as anchor points for the woodwork that the rest of the building is made of.

The wooden part of the half-timbered houses functions as a framework, the empty space between getting filled with one of various other building materials, from bricks over planks to wattle and daub. In short, anything that fills the space. The important part of the woodwork meanwhile being an arrangement that distributes the weight onto the foundation as well as the joints that join the wood together.

After the construction work, Edea performs various tasks in the guild, beginning with getting the darn thing clean. It proves to be more of an effort than Edea initially expected, with her wiping the entire floor, walls, windows, and counters clean over the course of several hours. Had she known that cleaning can be this exhausting, she'd have paid maids and cleaners more respect.

With the cleaning finally done, she then proceeds to the task she was looking forward to more. Processing monster materials. Or, in other words, butchering and disassembling the monsters brought in by other adventurers. After being provided a long, blood-splattered overcoat, thick gloves, and a variety of differently sized blades and knives, Edea gets to work. The first few monsters are some sort of large wolves. They get roughly the same treatment an animal would. First drain the blood, then skin their pelt.

Edea of course is still learning on the job, taking advice and guidance from others as she slowly acquires the knowledge and skills needed. After removing the pelt, you come to the meat and organs. As you wouldn't want to stomach to rip open, contaminating the rest of the body, you have to carefully remove the organs before then separating the meat from the bones.

Any disgust Edea might have felt is overshadowed by excitement of learning new things, as well as the promised reward of monster remains. After the wolves come various giant spiders. They have to be butchered in an entirely different manner than the wolves. To make them more manageable, Edea first chops off the remaining legs, letting the spider's blood drain from those stumps as she gets to cutting up their legs. Apart from the chitin some of the spiders have and their claws, the rest of the legs isn't of much interest to the guild. Edea gladly uses this chance to brutally dissect them, ending up with a good understanding of the spider's anatomy. Well, the leg's anatomy.

Unwilling to risk a poison gland bursting, Edea then cuts open the spider's head with generously sized cuts, removing the fangs and eyes together with the poison glands. With the head already mostly torn apart, the brain quickly follows. After that, the spider isn't that much different from the wolves, with Edea having to remove the organs. Only that this time, the silk gland is of great interest, and the meat not so much. Turns out most people dislike eating spider meat. And after looking at them up close, Edea can quite understand that. They simply don't look appetizing.

After spending a large part of her day disassembling the spiders, Edea is finally finished with that task, taking an assortment of spider parts with her as payment. If things go as she expects them do, she might have some use for those parts later on. Be it alchemy or some other sort of crafting.

With the E-rank tasks taken care of, today is the day she first tries her hand at D-rank tasks. To be specific, creating medicinal salve. As she is long fed-up with trying to find any herbs from gathering, she instead simply buys various ingredients for the salve, based on both her faint memories as well as the recommendations of others. After spending some more money on rending the tools for the task, she begins her work.

The mixing itself turns out to be far simpler than she feared. After all, she merely has to grind down a few herbs, filter out the larger, undesired part of the herbs with water and salt before binding the active ingredients together with a neutral paste. At least for one of the salves. She gets so lost in the process that she slowly begins to remember a couple of other simple recipes, putting together an array of various salves for different purposes. Alas, due to her making so many different salves, there are only a few portions of each.

She ends up resupplying for another few batches, finally managing to put together desired target of 20 salves total, with a few leftover for her personal use.