Adventurers Guild Adventurer's Guild - Receptionist's Desk

The gourd part is orange is that intentional

 

Of Course.

 

"Miss receptionist @AliceShiki , I'm here to summit my report"

Spoiler: Quest report

[Day 1]
In the next morning that I took the request, I went to Asgith's blacksmith to confirm the route of transportation

"The shipment should be transported to Moon village then depart to Nagrand when the escort arrives at Moon village" -Asgith

The client informed that the convoy should come from Moon village and pass through caves of the dead.

After receiving intel from Asgith I went Kuro's Mountain Crossing Service build to confirm that whether or not they involved with this case
One of their staff hand me the log book of Asgith's shipment, it seems that the request was cancelled

[Day 2]
I travelled on foot for a whole day to reach the Village of Flaminis and try to ask the local for the path to cross the mountain. The villagers are a bit hostile to outsiders but I once visit this village before with my parent, the locals seem to remember me.

[Day 3]
I arrive at Moon village and meet the couriers, they said that they wasted their budget on repairing carriage due to the harsh weather from mine to Moon village.

We plan to move to the village of Flaminis by using the path that I used before and restock our supplies there instead of passing through the cave of the deads. When the sun is setting we settle our camp at the riverbank near the mountain range.

[Day 4]
While crossing the mountain some carriage got stuck due to the narrow path so we had to slow down our pace.

I climb to the higher ground and spotted some undead(zombie) on the left side, I decided to let the couriers went ahead and distract the zombies by throwing pebbles to create noise in the opposite direction we are heading.
[Day 5]
While travelling back to Nagrand we came across a group of wolves heading to an area that filled Lupine Grass, They take a look at the convoy and walk away.

We arrived at Nagard at night, the couriers took the shipment to Asgith's blacksmith while I head to bed first due to the fatigue and report on the next day.

Spoiler: Notes

1. The quest is only to 'find' but why I went through all the troubles.

2. Due to the client did not give the information about where the ore came from and the people who are in charge of transporting are mostly dwarves. I suspect that there are some hidden entrance to Dwarven mines around the north. Requesting further investigation.

3. The wolves might head to Village of Flaminis and ruin villages' crops and livestock after they sniff all the gud stuffs

 

"Eh, still there. I suppose I can do Aria's work, after all, she has been overworking herself... I suppose that's the pain of being popular."

Taking the report, Gaap began to read it as he was preparing the rewards, considering their states and expressions, along with the straightforward quest, it is doubtful that they failed.

"I see... I see, it went rather well it seems. Well, as for the wolves... There should a lot of hunters and tanners in Nagrand, it should be fairly easy to find one who might want your materials. You can also try to simply sell directly to villagers, but they would probably only accept below the market price as you aren't merchant or hunters or tanners... You are adventurers. Though, considering the amount, it should make a rather fine pouch of money for E-Ranks."

"Anyway... Here are your rewards. 4 Guild point each and 18 Large Copper Coins, share the amount as you wish, and come back later for quests, you did a nice work."

OOC: That was a nice read~
Good job handling wit that~
@SpearOfLies @A5G_Reaper

 

Any estimate for the skin and meat price range?

 

You surely did an excellent job Fen-san, the client was very pleased with your work~

And sorry you had to deal with such a poorly written request, Asgith isn't known to be very good at explaining himself when angry... Still, you did everything perfectly~

The information over the mines is also interesting, we'll keep it in mind...

As for the wolves.. The villagers of Flaminis will probably be able to fend them off for themselves, but information is always welcome, so many thanks~

The reward would be 8 Large Copper Coins, but... Considering all you did, we'll be giving you 2 extras as a bonus, so the final reward will be 10 Large Copper Coins and 4 Guild Points~

Keep up the great job~ *bows*

 

The black haired girl skips merrily as she makes her way to the counter with her partner (@Drevart), and hands over a roll of parchment.

"We're back~ The issue has been solved, and the ghost is no longer hunting those lands~"

Spoiler: Dream's End

A few hundred metres out of the city, a girl was leaning against a tree, tapping her sword hilt repeatedly, as she waited for her teammate to show up.

Calmly walking on the road Drevart was walking at a decently fast pace but it still looked as a normal walking. Soon enough he saw his teammate waiting for him.

“Sorry, took a bit longer then expected to get done with the door.”

"Oh, you're here! Great~ Let us be off, I have travelled to this village before, so I know the quickest route there~ Still, thank you for agreeing to come along! Otherwise, I would have never been able to get this quest."

“Well, to be honest I'd prefer a killing or exploration quest, but right now my body is a bit too unstable, so the only thing I can do for sure is making illusions....”

Said Drev in a calm voice, carefully observing his surroundings. He became way too used to war during those year and a half of participating in it.

“Hmm, I can mark out the locations that might interest you on a the map if you like, and you'll be able to explore them later. For now though, let's hurry. This way."

Elaine led the way with a smile, although she could be heard mumbling under her breath.

This request...it’s from that time, isn’t it? The same spirit whom I had investigated and talked to the last time...And yet that Baron just wants her to be removed, regardless of the method? Hmph! Selfish bastard! I think I saw a quest asking for people to locate his daughter in the forest, so that means she’s gone missing...While it’s not the child’s fault, it does serve that Baron right! Hah! If only whoever took that quest would be a little bit late, just late enough for the news to leak out.

“Hmm, that would be nice.”

Drevart was quietly following his companion and looking around. He randomly used an illusion to cover them so that they would look as if they were walking a couple of steps back. It already became his habit to cover his steps. He looked at the back of the girl and asked a random question.

“By the way, what's your name? I totally forgot to ask.”

He felt that there was something fishy going on because of the atmosphere and that his companion was mumbling something under her breath.

"Ah? Ah! Where are my manners, I haven't even introduced myself properly! My name is Elaine, a rapier user that fights on the frontlines. Pleasure working with you!"

She sticks out her hand with a large grin.

Drev shakes the hand and says.

“Drevart, a living illusion, so obviously I'm an illusion shaper. Usually am an assassin of sorts or a scout. Ok, we are done with the introductions so let's go to quickly finish this task. By the way, what do you know about this task? I'm kinda new to this world so I'm not sure about the situation.”

He starts walking again while asking this question but still looking at the surroundings.

"This task, well..."

The smile falls from Elaine's face.

"The village reported a haunting sometime ago, mainly reports of a spectral woman who hung about at the far side of the lake. I was the one who took that quest when it came in back then, and thus I got a chance to interact with the ghost directly. She told me her story, and...I really wanted to help her out more, so I'm responding to this request once again. I don't plan on exorcising her at all, after all, that baron--"

She sneers with a hint of derision.

"--That baron who only cares about his own wants won't ever care about minor details like this. And since he only requested for the ghost to be gone, it doesn't have to be exorcism. All we need to do is convince her to leave."

“Well... can you tell me the story? I have some suspicions but I need to confirm them first…”

He looks a bit to the side at the forest to the side of the road and adds quietly.

“But keep your voice down, I can deceive only one sense for now…”

"Well, from what she told me, she had been waiting around the village area forever, waiting for her husband who went to war but never returned. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her husband was probably dead, and from her eyes, I guess she knew that, too. But still she stayed there, at the house that formerly belonged to the two of them, waiting for him to come back..."

“But what does the baron has to do with it? And can he try swindling us?”

Drevart asks while continuing walking down the road and carefully paying attention to the sides of the road, because someone is following them from the town.

"Well, he ordered for the spirit to be removed by all means necessary, because he hates spirits on his lands, according to him. Well, that sounds a bit suspicious, but...Ne, turn left here."

Elaine's eyes glinted, for she had felt a third presence tailing them as well. And just up ahead was a junction, where the left path turned into a dense grove of trees. They could set up an ambush there.

Drev turns his head slightly and says.

“There are actually three people tailing us. Two additional are for emergencies I guess, so they are a bit further away and feel like tailing the person tailing us.”

After saying it he casts [Large Mirage] and after hiding himself and his companion goes to the left and sends their illusions looking like they were continuing their quiet talking further down the open road.

“Now we can change the roles here…”

"That's a handy spell. How long can you make it last for? If you can make it persist, we could lead them into all sorts of fun places. There's a clearing full of carnivorous plants, a goblin den, as well as a swamp all in the immediate vicinity. Hehe~"

Elaine chuckled quietly.

“They are just ordinary people, so as long as they don't figure out that those are illusions and as long as we play this out carefully I can continue playing this trick on their senses for about 2-3 hours... if I were in my normal condition they could be lost in my illusions for days…”

He sighed at this but shook his head later on.

“Okay, let's quickly dispose of them, so I will get some weapon at least.... and some pocket money too.”

"In that case, why not lure them to the den and let them do the work for us? The three of them should be able to take down a fair number of goblins before they get overran...and all we have to do is to mop up the stragglers."

Elaine smiles cheerfully as she talks about murdering people, as if it was no big deal.

“Well, lead the way, I need to be in a certain radius for my illusions to work, it's around 20 meters.”

Drev said while looking at how their trackers were going after their copies.

"Annnnd, down he goes. Too bad, so sad."

Elaine grins, hearing the screams of pain and terror coming from the cave.

"What a pity. They must have put up quite the fight, before the rest got them. Well, there are only stragglers left in that den, but it never hurts to be careful, right?"

She had a smoldering torch in hand, rapier in another.

"Let's go clean up and get some loot. Too bad there weren't any goblin extermination quests, but this den will fill up with monsters again after a while, so we can always come back."

“Okay, I'll blend us into the surroundings. It shall obstruct their vision a bit.”

Drev said while picking up a certain herb from the side of the cave. And after getting up he looked into the cave.

“Well...here we go..”

After saying that he casts another large mirage around them which makes edges of their bodies a tad bit more obscure. After doing so, he checks it and nods in confirmation that everything was fine, then he turns to his companion and says.

“I'll go first, and will mark enemies for you with a little illusionary dot, just kill those ones…”

After saying it he dives into the cave.

Note to self: Haruna's leather gear didn't make unnecessary sounds.

Elaine snuck in quietly, after spending some time at the entrance to allow her eyes to adjust to the dark.

From that point, it was easy to sneak up on goblins that were wounded, or those distracted with their dead invaders, and shanked them right in the brain. After a few repeats, she got better and better at it.

Thus, the goblins that were marked all died miserably and swiftly. She went through their bodies, picking out anything of value, and also took some coins of their dead stalkers. She would give half to her partner later.

Drevart picked up a dagger from one of their trackers on his way through the cave. There were around 7 goblins left. Some of them were wounded so they didn't pose any threat to them, but still, he decided not to make a move himself since he wasn't sure if he wouldn't drop the dagger because his body will randomly go from completely corporeal state. If that happens and if he were to get wounded it will give them useless trouble, so after seeing that all the targets were down he quietly appeared next to his companion after checking the entirety of the cave.

“There is nothing of interest left here, and all the goblins were killed so let's go continue with our quest.”

He released the illusion so as to avoid taking unnecessary toll on his mind.

“Mhm, lets. We wasted some unnecessary time to handle this matter, so let's just head for the village now. We'll make it by day's end if we hurry."

-----------------

After spending some time on their walk they managed to get to the village before night. At the entrance they were asked who they were, so Drev quickly pulled out his Adventurer's Guild badge.

“We are here to deal with the ghost.”

He lied with the straight face, so if the baron were to check this out he would just notice that there were two adventurers who came to deal with the ghost.

Villager A: Oh, then welcome, sorry for out bad hospitality, you know what's goin' on here…

Said he with a bit of an anxious face.

“Nevermind, just show us the way where the ghost was seen last time.”

On the Drevart's face was a calming smile, and his tone was reassuring. After that he added.

“Oh, also I'd appreciate if you were to free the space around that place... I think 20 metres shall be fine. That's just in case some...unnecessary trouble occurs.”

The villager hastily nodded.

Villager A: Sure, sure, no problems with that, I'll go tell the Village chief to make an announcement...Bob, help these good people out!

He called for the other villager and went to the biggest house in the village...But Elaine cut in.

“No no no, there's no need for that, Bob, I came here last time for this same issue, remember? We'll get to the Village Chief's House by ourselves, thank you. There's no need for any special preparations."

Leading the way away from the villagers, Elaine whispered softly.

"I know where she is, but we need to see the Village Chief first. There's no need to make a ruckus in the village, since most of them know me from my prior two day stay here. Oh hello there, Rudy."

She waved to a child that was running towards them.

"Sis Elaine? You're here again?"

"Yep, I came here on a small quest, so I'll be looking forward to eating your mother's cooking again, okay? Run along now."

Again, when the kid had ran out of sight, she continued whispering.

"The village chief is a good man, so I'm sure he won't want the lonely ghost exorcised, either. I'll just convey this to him so that he can tie up any loose ends that may arise."

“Okay, that's a good idea. I doubt the baron will be doing something unnecessary... Since you know the way you are in the lead, I'll follow you.”

Drevart said while looking around as if he were just curious about what's going on. But that was just his normal behaviour of being wary of his surroundings, especially with humans.

“It would still be good if we had some free space since I can't obstruct two different senses at the same time, so I'd like to just make it look like an exorcism so that if there were to be witnesses they would believe that the ghost was exorcised.”

“That much is simple. Humans will see what they want to see, and the spirit shows up in a relatively isolated area across the river anyway. I'll just go in and tell the chief, so we can get the key to the abandoned house there. Ah, we're here."

Elaine knocked on the door twice.

"Come in!"

"Ready? Let's go."

“As if I'm not ready…”

Drevart gave a bit of a forced smile and entered the house after the girl. He looked around and saw a cosy wooden room, it was pretty warm, There was some simple furniture in there. Nothing special about it.

Drev automatically remembered where the windows are in case of an emergency. That wasn't really intentional, just his old habits as a former assassin/scout.

"Chief Ojiji, I'm here to visit again, I've brought a friend this time~"

"Little lady, please don't call me Oji, I'm only 55 this year...Anyway, as much as it's great to see you again, I can't really spare the time to talk. The spirit's been getting more and more...anxious."

"I know. We're here to solve that very issue. I'm from the Adventurer's Guild, remember?"

Ah, the old man said, as if he just remembered.

"Still, take care of yourself, young lady. In my days, anyone that weren't over 20 had no business holding a sword, especially a girl. Of course, I can see that you have skills, so I can only wish you good luck..."

The village chief's eye twinkled a bit, sizing up the other adventurer.

"Your future husband, maybe?"

"Ojisan! Don't tease me! I'm not planning on anything of that sort, so let's not talk about that! More importantly, I need the keys again."

"I see, so you're planning to resolve the situation, huh...Will you exorcise her?"

"No. We'll convince her to leave with us."

The village chief stayed silent for a few seconds, before he tossed a key at Elaine, who caught it neatly.

"Good luck then, little lady. Go and do what you're here for, but remember, no matter what happens, do not have any regrets. Having a gentle heart is not a weakness."

Elaine tilted her head.

"Ookay then, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks a bunch, Jiji, we'll be going out now!"

She dragged the other adventurer out of the room, and left.

The old man shook his head, and chuckled, going back to his work.

Drevart shakes his head and sighs after exiting the house.

“Okay, let's move onto the stage then. By the way, while we are walking I'd like you to describe different visual effects of exorcism and if there aren't any the sound effects which can be seen or heard from outside the abandoned house. I need to cover it with an illusion after all.”

"Uh, I'm not an expert regarding exorcism, but from what I heard, it consists of blinding light and a spell formation, so an illusion should be easy to pull off. Anyway, here."

Elaine points to a bridge in the distance, connecting to the opposite shore at the far end.

"See that patch of woods? Beyond the treeline is a lone house standing in a clearing, and that's where we're going. There won't be a moonless night until tomorrow, though, so we have a day to prepare. For now though, it's just past evening, so let's go grab a bite! I'll treat you~"

“Hmm... Yeah, but I'll need to map out the territory around the house. As much as I can improvise I'd like to have a map of the territory to make the illusion more effective.”

Drevart said with a sigh while rubbing his temples. After that, he nodded.

“Let's go eat something, thanks for the treat, I'm a bit low on cash for now.”

-------------------------

"And here we are. Welcome to the abandoned cabin. Nothing too special, really, but we'll be here for the whole of today and tomorrow, so make yourself at home. I'm going to sort out the items inside, do whatever magickery you need, thank you~"

Saying thus, Elaine heads into the small cabin house.

“Magickery... pfft, as if it were one…”

Drevart sneers and then creates a flat half-transparent illusionary plate above his hand. After that, it starts changing and takes shape of a scene he sees. Afterwards, Drev starts walking around the cabin whilst creating a 3-dimensional map above his hand.

Finishing this task an hour later he has a map of the cabin and its surroundings and then he starts modelling the illusion, creating light and makes some obscure magic symbols of light magic from his world. He was looking for the most natural-looking and obscure illusion, in order to create a bigger version of it.

“Okay, this should be fine.”

He mumbles to himself when another hour or so passes. He was looking at the miniature cabin in his hand which had some obscure, barely-visible magical symbols and some light coming out from its windows and spreading to the surroundings.

Inside, Elaine was tinkering with the wooden toy horse she had found again, but this time, she was deep in thought, wondering if her conclusions were true. Having mostly patched up the sad looking horse, she paused to take a break.

Then she heard it. A song in the distance, just faint enough to miss it without paying careful attention, but otherwise, it was definitely there. She mouthed the song lyrics silently, and to her great dismay, she knew exactly what they were.

Running over to the window, she hurriedly stared outside. The crescent moon was shining brightly.

Impossible...She only shows up on moonless nights...Why today?

No time to think. The song was getting gradually louder, and if she was right, the spectral will definitely be here soon. Elaine opened the door immediately, and gestured for her teammate to hurry inside.

Seeing that his companion was waving at him to come into the house he got up and went inside while destroying the miniature illusionary model floating above his hand.

“It's starting already?”

He asked while going through the doorway. He heard the song and checked if he correctly remembered the illusion.

“I hope you will be able to handle this situation properly.”

Elaine was pale.

"It's not supposed to start today! The spirit only showed up during moonless nights, the last time I investigated into this matter! She's not supposed to even be out today...And to top it off, she usually starts singing after midnight has passed! It's not even eleven o'clock yet...What's going on?"

The song got ever so louder, and Elaine grew paler.

"She's singing the songs in the same sequence, the same order as she had sang to me the previous time around, but this time...you can hear it, can't you? There's not just sadness in her voice...There's so much anger as well...Oh god, I'm going to close the door first, and hope she's in the mood to banter."

The song ended, but another begun immediately, and there was no mistaking the ever increasing intensity. Whoever was singing was heading straight for the house.

“I will be of no help in dealing with the ghost if anything goes awry. Right now I can only help us escape if anything were to happen since I don't have anti-incorporeal weapons on me.”

Drev said looking carefully at their surroundings in preparation to warn if things will go the wrong way.

“Also, can you tell me the best moments of life of the ghost, I can try to calm her down with illusions if needed, but I need to know illusions of what is needed.”

"Illusions...Ah! I don't think you'll need this, but if we really have two, show her two images, that of a young boy holding a wooden toy horse, as well as a man in full plate armour, his face masked with the visor."

Elaine did her best to describe the two's general appearance to her partner, showing the wooden horse as well so that he would know what to conjure. Meanwhile, the song grew louder, and judging by the proximity, the ghost was just outside of the clearing, hiding in the treeline.

"I'll go out and stand at the entrance, so that she'll be able to see me, and hopefully she'll remember me from my visit the last time. You should stay here, because I don't know how she'll react to another stranger in this state, and only come out if there's a need to, okay?"

Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Elaine pushed the door open, went outside, and closed it once more, standing on the front steps of the house with her weapon undrawn.

Drev nodded calmly after remembering everything the girl told him. He just stood inside the cabin near the window, carefully looking outside whilst creating an illusion of obscuring his figure so he wouldn't be so noticeable. Drevart also prepared the illusion of exorcism if everything goes well.

“I hope everything goes well…”

He mumbles quietly observing the situation outside and prepares to intervene if needed.

The ghost floated closer and closer to the house like last time, but this time, she went right up to Elaine. And the closer she got, the stronger the sense of dread got. Instead of a beautiful lady in a tidy dress, the lady ghost now appeared unkempt, her hair scattered about loosely, and her clothing torn in various parts. Elaine fidgeted nervously, but still managed to call out.

"Missus Eleanor, do you still remember me? I'm here to visit you again."

The ghost brushed aside the hair masking her face, and Elaine sighed in relief, noting that while she looked tired, it was still the serene expression that she had gotten used to.

"Ah...Elaine, it's you again. No wonder I had a feeling that someone was living in my house. You're quite the daredevil, aren't you? Still, why have you returned?”

Elaine's expression fell.

"I'll keep this simple..."
-----------------------------------
"Oh, so you're on a mission to come and exorcise me. In that case, go ahead."

"Huh?!"

"It's okay, gentle and kind child. I do not fault you for telling them. You were on a job, and as far as I'm concerned, you could have taken off when you first saw me, and left me alone without talking. You could have also allowed someone else to take this quest, and get rid of me painfully. But you didn't. You went to the effort of coming back here and telling me all this. For that, I am grateful, and if it's by your hand, I will not mind."

"I won't do it, missus Eleanor. I can tell if people are hiding something. If you passed on without finding your family, you will have a lot of regrets, won't you?"

The spirit sighed.

"It would not be incorrect to say that I have some lingering regrets...But I have waited so long, and he is not back yet. The world is wide; who knows when we'll meet? I should stop now before it gets any worse."

"Missus Eleanor, was your husband possibly called Darrion?"

The spirit's eyes grew wide.

"How...did you possibly know? I never mentioned his name last time."

"Then I know where he is, Missus Eleanor! I can bring you to him, as long as you come with us! He and your son are now residing in an abandoned shrine some miles away from Hero's Port! If you come with us, I'll bring you guys together again!"

The spirit begun tearing up.

"You...speak truly? I get to see my little boy and my darling again? I...I can be together with them again?"

Elaine hesitated a bit.

"Missus Eleanor...We can't let you just follow us like that. People will mistake you for an evil ghost, and attack you, and exorcists may target you. If there was a way to let you come with me without possessing me, I don't know---"

"You can transfer my soul to an item. I don't know the exact details, though."

"A ritual, huh..."

Elaine frowned, but then perked up.

"I know! I have a friend that specializes in magic! Perhaps he knows?"

She yanked open the door, revealing her teammate.

"I guess I shall correct you a little. I'm not really a magic user. My ability to create illusions is not affecting the mind, it's just affecting the senses of people in a certain way. It's like your ability to walk for me. Or being incorporeal for her... or for me. Well anyways. You are lucky that I did come in contact with a decent amount of mages. Back at my home, there was a ritual to bind a soul to an item, but that will permanently imprison the said soul, so it's not that good of an option…”

Drevart sizes up the ghost lady and thinks to himself.

“I can cover her with an illusion to hide her from normal people but if we will come close to priests or exorcists they will be able to tell that she is a ghost.”

Drevart's eyes remained expressionless while talking about all this. He was trying to remember some other ways to bind a soul to the item not permanently but it was unsuccessful.

"Hmm...What if she possesses me? Will that hide her from the exorcists?"

Elaine ponders as well.

“Hmmm... It won't hide her completely. Experienced exorcists can still find out about her and priests may still feel that something's off... Miss…”

Drevart turns to the lady ghost. And says with a serious face.

“You shall understand, that it will be endangering my companion here, and that can have consequences for me in the Guild. So I can only allow you to do so if you swear an oath that you won't attempt to dominate Elaine's soul while possessing her....”

His gaze was kinda heavy, since he knew way too well the consequences of a ghost dominating hosts soul. And even ghosts of ordinary people can dominate the soul of a weak adventurer for adventurers are people too.

"Elaine..."

The ghost begins.

"Is this your future husband, by any chance?"

"Wha---No! Why does everyone get that impression? We've just met yesterday, and barely got to know each other! Yeesh...Wait."

Elaine started thinking about it more seriously. A few weeks ago, her and a few other E-ranks had gone on an impromptu dungeon dive, nearly had their asses handed to them, and got...a lesser monster's core shard. Containing a lesser monster's essence.

"Say, I've got this piece of monster here..."

Elaine says, holding it in her palm.

"Can Eleanor possess this and live in it while I bring it around, then? It'll be easier to hide her."

“Of course, I'm not her future husband. I just don't trust humans.”

Drevart sneers and then looks closer at monster core shard and says while nodding.

“It's a bit too damaged but everything shall go fine. Monster cores consist of concentrated mana, so she will be able to feed on it and exist in the cost of it. But we will have limited time to bring her out of here. When all the mana in the shard will be absorbed she will be forced out because no proper ritual was conducted. Sorry, necromancy wasn't one of my major subjects back at home.”

He says calmly while observing the monster core shard and asks.

“So you can get these in the dungeons, huh?... I'll need to visit those later on…”

"Yep, although it's rather dangerous, since the advice is for adventurers of D-rank and above only, so the experience was...unique, to say the least. We only got past three rooms before I had to advise us to retreat. We didn't exactly prepare to stay, and there was this unique individual who aggroed every monster in those rooms."

Elaine shrugged, before taking out the shard.

"Here it is. I have no clue how it's done, so...will you do the honours?"

“It's not really up to me either... and better not give it to me. My body will automatically begin absorbing the energy in them in an attempt to find Aether energy. Anyways there is no need for a ritual or anything if we want to temporarily bind her to this item. Eleanore... was it?”

Drevart turns around and looks at the ghost lady. He ponders for a brief moment then slowly begins the explanation.

“I'm not sure if this will work, but I'll try to explain what you need to do in order to bind yourself to the monster core shard. While being the ghost you shall be able to feel the pulsing of energy in this shard. Try to move closer to it and get absorbed into it. Well, it's somewhat like possession but that one of the inanimate object and not a living organism... Argh... It's kinda troublesome to explain what you don't really get yourself…”

"So like a moth going to a lamp. I understand."

The ghost slowly floated towards Elaine's outstretched hand, with the core shard glowing brighter the nearer it was. Finally, the ghost reached out to touch the core, and disappeared.

That wasn't too difficult.

Elaine stared at the shard, then back at her partner, then back at the shard.

"That's...it, then?"

“Yep... Now we have a limited time to bring her away. But I can't estimate how much time do we have so it will be better to hurry up with it.”

Then Drevart turns to look at the cabin. and looks at it while squinting his eyes a bit.

“Now I need to show a little spectacle, just in case…”

After saying this in their surroundings mist started to appear. And then it mysteriously disappeared in the surrounding space. After that light began to appear inside the house. At first, it was weak and afterward, it became brighter and brighter. There were some mysterious magical symbols floating in the light. It didn't look really epic, just beautiful and calming light. soon enough it disappeared.

Drev looked at his body and saw that its edges became more blurry.

“Crap... Elaine, I'll have no battle capabilities for a few hours now…”

He said in a grumbling voice.

“I overused my body a bit.”

"In other words, no fighting. Understood. Since it's early in the night, let's just...rest here until morning? Or do you want to start back on the city? It might be more dangerous at night, but I have walked these paths before. I can get us back without encountering any monsters."

“We have limited time, remember? We were going to move Eleonore out of here. So we have no other choice but to move out now.”

He said frowning a bit. Thank he looks at their surroundings and adds.

“Even though my body is a bit exhausted I can still outline enemies for you in the darkness so in case something happens we won't be overwhelmed that easily in the darkness. So lead the way…”

“Okay then. I'll just pop over to the chief's house to return the key, and tell him that the quest is completed. Let's go~"

Soon enough, they were heading back towards the city. The party slipped through the terrain, moving silently but quickly, and by dawn, they had managed to make it to the city without any further hindrances.

@AliceShiki

 

"Yoohoo~! We're back from investigating some port banditry!"

Spoiler: Report

"You're big." The gourd plainly stated upon seeing his latest partner. A towering mass of muscle and bared chest, the lack of armor was a bit questionable but if he's alive he probably have some way to deal with that.

"And you must be detective Jack. Shall we head to the docks?", Nero had never seen anyone quite like Jack before. Nevertheless, he judged Jack to be a competent adventurer. And they began walking towards the general direction of the dock.

"Haha! No detective, just a thug for hire. Incidentally this job would probably require a thug more than a detective. I refuse to believe something spirited the ships away, must be some creative thieves."

"Yeah, even I don't buy the spirited away stuff. The guards must be rather incompetent to allow this to happen. We'll find out soon enough."
The two of them continued with their speculations as they approached the docks. Once they arrived, it became abundantly clear that this was a place in decline. The atmosphere was somber and the workers seemed to hold conversation in whispers.

"Either that, or they're involved in this somehow."

*****

Attempting to question the guards, they're unhelpful at best. Downright kicking the two out of the dock eventually. Food for thought. Wouldn't they need the dock functional to keep their job?

"Let's find our client first shall we?"

Wogen was a famous person around these parts and the civilians were helpful in pointing our heroes towards his office. Just a stones throw away from the docks was an office building that was busier with all kinds of people moving in and out. The two adventurers showed their badges to an employee and requested a meeting with Wogen. They were sent to wait in a luxurious room and served refreshments.

After a short wait, a middle aged man with unremarkable looks scurried towards the two and introduced himself as Wogen. " There are spirits in the docks!!! I've hired all kinds of people to keep an eye out at night. I have gone to the docks myself and witnessed the disappearance. The ships are there one moment and they are gone the next. We have searched all around and even underwater, not a trace was found."

"Have you tried to station people in the ships?" Jack the Gourd asked the captain.

"The first few disappeared with the ship and nobody's willing ever since!"

He turned to his taller partner.

"Any ideas? We could keep watch, perhaps there's something they missed."

"Yeah, we should do a search ourselves." Nero agreed with his partner and the two of them returned to the docks, but this time, they were accompanied by Wogen as well.

"There weren't many boats that are stationed here during the day time. Most boats return by sunset. The larger ships are usually anchored a little deeper into the water. Three of them have disapeared. We can only get to them using boats. Its these large ships that are being targeted. If we see a ship disappear, it would still take us 5 minutes to actually get to where the ships should have been."

"Were are the larger ships now?"

"Every ship has set off on their journeys and no new ships are scheduled to come here till the next week."

"What about the Red Betty?"

"It's undergoing maintenance at the yard. We plan to set sail in two weeks."

"I think you should smuggle us into the ship. Best if nobody else know we're there. Is that possible?"

The captain looked skeptical. "Not my problem if you both vanishes, but if you lost my ship..."

"To be honest, I dont think there's any horror at the sea that spirit ships away from a port. That just make no sense. I'd wager that this is the work of men."

"But still, several large ships have disappeared so far. If it's true that man steal the ships, just the minimum number to operate it would greatly outnumber you."

"We have our countermeasures. If not us, please trust the guild."

"...feh, fine! Don't make me regret this!"

Several days later, the Red Betty returned to the sea and parked herself on the water. As agreed the captain let the two adventurers into the hold beforehand, not telling anyone about their presence. After all no matter how superstitious seamen were, he couldn't disagree that it's still quite likely for someone to use mundane method to spirit the ship away.

"And now we wait. Hopefully whoever is responsible is audacious enough to strike tonight. Jerky?" He offered a piece of smoked meat to his compatriot.

And our two adventurers spent the entire day eating, drinking and playing card games. They had enough supplies to last for two days and there would be boats traveling to the Red Betty on a daily basis anyway.

Eventually the sun went down and the docks became silent. By this time, Nero was fast asleep and Jack was swinging his sword while pacing around in anticipation of an upcoming battle. Eventually, even Jack got bored and decided that he would rather patrol the ship to spend time.

From the deck, Jack looked into the distance. Under the moonlight, he could see the town and the various buildings. He began thinking about how anyone would make an approach towards stealing a ship. As if on cue, a deep mist started floating around the ship, enveloping it. The lights went out, plunging the ship into darkness. The faintest sound of chanting was coming from the sea. A few moments later, he heard a moderately loud thunk from behind. Jack spun around and noticed 3 grappling hooks fly from below and hook on to the railing of the ship.

Returning to the hold silent as a cat, the gourd poked on his sleeping companion to wake him up.

"We got company. Stay hidden."

Well, it's probably unlikely for the invaders to expect stowaway but it can't hurt to take precaution. The two slinked into a corner beneath several crates, practically invisible in a glance.

Three... five? No, at least eight people. Just enough skeleton crew for a ship this size.

There were footsteps above them, as silent as they tried to be the ship creaked with every shift in weight. It started to move very slowly, nobody bothering to check the hold. Make sense, she just came out of the drydock and wouldn't have anything in stow. Normally.

After about thirty minutes, the ship entirely stopped wobbling. The gourd took a moment to peek out, revealing that the ship's suspended in one of the repair drydock. The windows were covered by board and curtain to prevent light from leaking out, there was a small office room at one side, and a number of people were swarming onto the deck carrying paint and woodworking tools.

Returning to his companion, he described what he saw.

"We guessed right, there's a whole bunch of people out there with enough tools to completely remodel how this ship look in a glance. Thoughts?"

"Let's move out and attack. Workers side, I don't think stealing ships could be done so quietly by a large crew. If we can surprise them, we could even get them to surrender."

As everyone had disembarked the ship, Nero equipped his spears and trusted shield and made his way to the deck. Seeking his massive frame, the workers scrambled away in panic, creating a lot of noise.
After looking around, he noticed a group of four swordsmen trying to make way through the rushing crowd. Sensing an opportunity, he pierced one of them through the stomach with his first attack. The second swordsman swung his sword but Nero parried it using his shield and sent him flying with a kick.
Seeing this, the other two decided against charging in and held their distance.

Well, the big guy's attracting lots of attention at least.

None spared attention to a particular gourd skipping the planks and climb through the frames of the drydock instead. Like an oversized caterpillar he descend near the office, hearing some people speaking inside, and barged in through the front door.

There's a scarred middle-aged man sitting behind a desk speaking with an overly gaudy man dressed in blue robe, as well as a pair of pirate henchmen - the gourd can't describe them in any other way, with the matching eyepatch and sailor outfit -, all turned toward the newcomer. There was silence for a moment as they're unsure what to make of the gourd.

"Evening gentlemen, I hereby demand your surrender and the return of the stolen ship. Failure to comply will be met with lethal force."

The mage seemingly winked from existence. The two guards draw their cutlass, while the middle-aged man stayed seated with flat look.

"...lethal force it is."

The first henchmen charged forward for an overhead swing. A mistake, expecting him to stay still. The gourd closed the distance, his foe's blade impotently hanging high, and jabbed with the broken blade. Then he kicked the man screaming and spilling his guts onto the second assailant, breaking any semblance of footing. A lazy swing parted a head from the rest of the body, spraying blood everywhere.

Some stick onto thin air.

"What's the rush? Stay."

A single slam with the shield knock the mage down with broken nose, the illusion shattering. Gourd barely finished and yelped as a crossbow bolt broke against his helmet, narrowly missing the eyehole.

The middle-aged supervisor calmly reloaded his crossbow, drawing a sword after he's done. Just from his footing showed that this man had his share of bloodshed, the gourd slowly raised his shield into a proper stance.

Unfortunately for the supervisor, the gourd's approach to shield-and-sword was nowhere near standard.

Normally, the fighter would root in place to block with the shield and never overextend in their attack, capitalizing on enemy mistakes. Instead, this one in particular felt closer to someone dual-wielding that constantly move and strike with the shield almost as often as the broken blade. He moved around too much to sneak a shot with the crossbow and undoubtedly won't let any opportunity to reload once it's fired.

In the end, it never did. The dance of steel lasted a short three minutes, culminating in the gourd's blade straight up slicing through the supervisor's sword. The latter desperately jumped backward only to receive a shield tossed and shattered his knee. He bit back a scream right before a blow to the back of the neck knocked him out cold.

"Whew! That was refreshing. Wonder how the big guy fares. He should be fine, I hope."

If Nero needed help, he would assist. Otherwise, he'll make sure the workers aren't going anywhere. Shouldn't be hard, there's only one door.

The two standing swordsmen decided to encircle Nero while maintaining their distance. As they slowly sidestepped away from each other, Nero decided to take a quick glance behind his back. Jack was nowhere to be seen. One of the swordsmen decided to take advantage of this and rushed in, only to have his chest pierced by a spear.

Now that all his companions had fallen, the final swordsman found himself facing the four armed monster all by himself. It was his hesitation to attack that had kept him alive till now. In this situation, he came to the conclusion that he had to run away at all costs, and sprinted across the deck to jump into the sea.

Nero, on the other hand, moved in the opposite direction, towards the aforementioned office building. He found Jack waiting for him, next to four dead bodies.

"Looks like we are done here. One of us should go and contact Wogen. I'll stay here, keep an eye on the ship and eat some jerky"

"Just a moment..."

He's prying the crossbow off the supervisor's hand, taking a few seconds to inspect the contraption before firing toward the escaping man. There was a muffled grunt and a thud as the man collapsed from a chronic bolt infection in his neck.

He gathered the fifteen-odd workers, tying them with some rope found in the office alongside with the unconscious supervisor and a still moaning and gurgling mage. Once the work's done, now come the rewarding part of the job - namely, looting.

"Hired thug, remember? Not like they'll need the stuff."

The thieves travelled light, unfortunately. Or maybe they're just poor. Only thing of note from the henchmen were the swords, six old bronze swords with varying degree of damage. The supervisor's sword was fine steel but already broken and chipped. The crossbow's actually quite pristine, albeit standard issue. He also collected money from everyone present aside from Nero, living or dead. That earned a small pouch of big and small copper coins - the mage and supervisor had more than the rest combined.

"I guess that's all, I'll report to Captain Wogen. Guy's probably wailing over the ship. Seeya!"

Leaving the loot pile with Nero, he casually unlatched the door and walked out.

Wailing was probably a strong word, but Captain Worgen very nearly strangled the gourd the moment they met. Luckily he managed to spit out "The ship is secure" just before the agitated man grabbed him, and using the captain's clout brought a veritable mob of disgruntled captains and sailors to the thieving drydock.

Didn't take much "convincing" to get a confession out of the mage that he's hired by a pirate crew to steal large boats using illusion magic to cover the ship's disappearance. Then it's transported into a rented drydock to refurbish, changing the appearance enough that it cannot be recognized in a glance and set it out to rejoin the fleet.

The two adventurers quietly left after acquiring proof of completion from the captain, who seemed ready to launch a bloody crusade against the pirates. Not their business anymore, really.

Spoiler: Notes

Got a spoils of six bronze swords, seems to have seen plenty of use. Also a crossbow and a broken steel sword. Please appraise for pawning.
Also collected 112 small coppers and 9 big coppers

@wraith @AliceShiki

 

@Amayah has not appeared in 48 hours within AG so I'm requesting that I can drop the quest that I was participating in alongside them.

@AliceShiki @BB_Tensei

 

*puts fingers on her forehead and sighs*

So... Let me see if I get this straight. *crosses arms atop of the table*

1) You, the both of you, took a request to exorcise a ghost when neither person in question had any capability nor knowledge of exorcism.
2) You willingly decided that you would trick the requester into believing what they wanted was cleared, when in fact you were going to do something completely different.
3) You involved completely unrelated 3rd parties into your scheme and put them at risk too.
4) You did all that without even a solid plan on how to finish your whole trick.
5) You dragged people that were following you from the city to a monster den and left them to die without even trying to access their purpose? Even when you had an illusionist in your party? Did it even cross your minds that they might have been spies hired by the baron to make sure the request was cleared properly? I mean, sure, they could have been bandits as far as I know, but you don't simply go and drag people to their deaths without even bothering to look at them when you're dealing with nobles, alright?
6) You delivered the report without even finishing the whole trickery... Am I to assume the ghost is still locked within a crystal right now? You better hurry to finish whatever you were doing before she gets out in the MIDDLE OF THE GODDAMN TOWN!
7) *sighs* And you didn't even try to trick the guild with a fake report to pretend everything was fine and dandy... Haa... Seriously, if you're going as far as risking your necks by tricking a noble, might as well trick the guild into believing you didn't get INTO A RIDICULOUSLY HUGE GODDAMN MESS!

Nevermind a reward, I'm tempted to actually make you pay a fine for all the trouble you've caused, you don't really have an idea on how dangerous it is to risk messing up with nobles do you?

I mean, do you even realize why people want ghosts exorcised? It's because they're dangerous. Mournful spirits are just one step away from becoming vengeful spirits that start sucking the life-force of anyone that gets near their area... Besides, sending them to the afterlife is generally something they'd get thankful for! You're giving them the peaceful rest that they were unable to obtain by themselves! *slams hand on table* Seriously, how little do you know about spirits? Even I know this much.

Haa... *puts fingers back on forehead* But a job done is a job done, the baron will probably be happy with your little show and with the "exorcism" you conducted, so... 2 Large Copper Coins for each, and 1 Guild Point, I'll give you that much.

Do me a favor and... No, do yourself a favor and clear the rest of the mess you started properly. Unless you don't mind getting one head shorter after the baron finds out your wooooonderful plan... Haa... What a way to start my day.

*waves you away* Shoo shoo, go deliver that spirit to the rest of her family already. Last thing we want is having your little mess exposed after all.

((*pokes @Drevart too*

I considered imagining you had also written a fake report to the guild, but it really seems like it never crossed your character's heads to do so, so I went with the idea that you only tried tricking the people of the village and let the guild aware of what actually happened.

In case you do want to write a fake report to the guild in future occasions, do leave something saying that in the Notes part, alright?

Nice report anyways, it was a good read~))

 

*finishes reading the report before neatly folding away*

Well, this was certainly a nice experience, especially after the headache the last report gave me... Ahem, you have nothing to do with that, sorry, don't mind me~

It's great to know it wasn't a case of corruption within the port at least, pirates are... Less of a trouble to handle at the very least, I'm sure the captains will handle it fine~

You two did a great job, you get 23 Large Copper Coins to share as you please, and 4 Guild Points for each. Take care now~ *smiles*

((*pokes @wraith too*))

 

@wraith since the staff doesn't appraise the pawned stuff, I arbitarily decide it to be worth 22 big copper. Total with the loot and reward is 54 big and 112 small copper, let's split that halfway (27+56).

 

"Won't dismiss that, we didn't stay long enoigh to find out more but there's no way the whole port guards and official is clean of this. Perhaps the good captain can tell you more after he calmed down."

 

Elaine makes her way to the desk, smiling painfully while handing over the report, trying not to put pressure on one of her legs.
"Quest is completed. Not much issue, although it was more complicated than it should have been, I reckon."

Spoiler: Two Sephirahs

“First things first, Ryan, this doctor you speak of...did they say what kind of illness your grandma was suffering from?”

“Nope.”

“Thought so.”

That was never good. First possibility, the doctor was a quack and was hoping to make a few extra bucks off a desperate kid. Second possibility and more likely, the doctor was truly trying to help, but if that was the case, it should have been okay for them to give the medicine, and then ask for gradual repayment. The fact that that didn’t happen...

“Any idea how to find this doctor?”

“Yes! She lives at…”

With those instructions that I had been given, I decided to make my way over to the doctor’s house, and when I arrived…

“What the...this is where the doctor lives?”

Before my eyes was a strange building that was painted completely black, but that was not the weirdest part. Rather, instead of having a structure that actually resembles a house, this...dwelling...looked like a huge spike rising out of the ground, except that the tip was rounded out. The door itself was black in colour, which made it incredibly difficult to actually find the damned entrance.

What kind of doctor lives here? A witch doctor?

I had barely knocked on the door before it was opened about halfway, and behind it stood a young girl who couldn’t have been more than ten. Fantastic.

“Uhm...Little one, I heard that there was a doctor here---”

*BAM*

Apparently, my friendly smile didn’t score me any points with the girl, and the loud slam of the shutting door drove that point home.

*Knock knock knock*

“Go away! Shiori isn’t interested in potion salesmen!”

So her name is Shiori, huh...Also, why potion salesmen in particular…?

“I’m not a salesman, so please open the door! It’s really important!”

“That’s what every potion salesman tells Shiori! Shiori’s not falling for that again! Now go away before I call the guards!”

“Wait, please don’t! I’m here on Ryan’s behalf!”

The girl quietened down immediately. Then, the door opened just enough to reveal the slightest crack, and Shiori poked her face through it.

“You’re here for Ryan?”

I nodded.

“He isn’t here. Go away.”

*BAM*

The door slammed close once again, but it wasn’t completely shut; mostly because my foot was jamming it open. It hurt. A lot.

“OUCH! Just let me in, dammit, little one! I’m not here to sell potions! I’m here to save Ryan’s grandmother!”

The door finally stopped trying to crush my toes, which was a relief, because I was about to lose all sensation in them. Then it opened fully, and I was able to catch a complete glimpse of Shiori; blue hair, blue eyes, blue clothes, blue everything.

“You should have told Shiori that earlier. Sorry.”

That wide smile didn’t make it very convincing, but my toes were aching, and I was too tired to argue.

“Now, can I please meet the doctor…?”

“The doctor went out to collect herbs. Won’t be back until tomorrow.”

Great. Simply wonderful.

“Then, why are you here?”

“Shiori is the doctor’s assistant. Shiori cleans the house, cooks, sells medicine, and gets rid of intruders.”

“Then, do you know where the doctor might be found?”

“Unknown. The doctor might be anywhere, as long as herbs can be found there.”

I contemplated bashing my head against the wall. Maybe going into a coma might give me some kind of prophetic vision, because Shiori wasn’t being helpful at all. Then the diminutive girl spoke again.

“You’re here for the medicine, right? It’s rather expensive, though, because Shiori has no way of validating your words. For all Shiori knows, you could be lying, so Shiori will have to charge you the market price.”

“It’s no problem. I can afford it.”

I called her bluff, staring at her right in the eyes, and sure enough, Shiori sighed.

“You really are here for Ryan, huh...To tell the truth, the doctor didn’t want to charge him a single coin, but one of the herbs required ran out, and we didn’t want to give him false hope.”

“So the doctor went out to look for those herbs? Is that it?”

She didn’t reply, so I prodded harder.

“You know where the doctor might be, don’t you?”

I waited for a while more, and then…

“Lakeside Forest. The Mandragora can be found there.”

Thank goodness. It’s not that far, I can make the journey there and back within two days. I thanked Shiori in a hurry, and made for the city gates.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I reached Lakeside Forest at around midnight, and begun searching immediately. There was two problems; I forgot to ask Shiori what the doctor looked like, and second of all, I only had a rough guess about what mandragoras looked like; the most I could remember was that they were rather rare, and only grew in damp places rich in nature energy.

Fantastic. I’m not a mage, so I have no idea how to detect energy of any kind. It’s also rather dark, and I only have the moon’s light to work with---Oh wait, yesterday was the last day of the waning crescent moon, so I don’t even have that. Amazing.

“Haaaah...”

With a sigh, I chopped off a small branch and set it alight, using the meagre flickering of the firelight to guide my way. It was a surefire way to draw any nearby monsters to me, but what choice did I have? The other alternatives were to run into monsters blindly in the dark, something I’d like to avoid; or to set a tree on fire to create more light. But with the way the forest is arranged, I’ll like to not cause a forest fire, thank you very much.

So I started looking for the mandragora that I had never seen before. This was going to take quite a while, isn’t it…

In the end, I found it by sheer luck. It was getting later and later, my eyelids were drooping, and the torch was about to burn out...and then I tripped over something in the murky darkness. I was too tired to even say anything, but I definitely heard a groan in the ground.

Mandragora...have mouths to emit human noises.

That cleared my mind immediately, and I hauled myself back on my feet, staring at the lump in the ground. There was a clump of leaves sticking out of it.

“Aha...Huh?!”

The moment I reached out for it, the lump moved, and begun burrowing furiously, heading in another direction, leaving me to just stare blindly as the little clump of leaves ran off, leaving a trail of freshly displaced dirt.

...What’s this, a cat and mouse game?

It took a while, but after the damned plant had gotten away from me for the third time, I had enough of chasing it. Instead, I followed the obvious dirt trail, and climbed the tree that was directly over it. Then, I hopped down from the tree, and seized the plant by the leaves before it could start running, pulling it out of the ground with a swift motion.

As expected, it was ugly as heck, and had eyes and a mouth...I was so tired at that point, that I forgot to prevent it from doing what it did best---Screaming. And so it did, proceeding to unleash the loudest, most annoying shout that I’ve ever heard.

Basic reasoning. What happens when something makes a loud noise? It attracts attention. And what happens when the setting takes place in a forest filled with night prowlers? I gagged it, but the damage was done, and I could hear faintly the sounds of the forest denizens waking up

“Well...I guess looking for the doctor will have to wait, because this damned thing just pulled aggro of just about every monster in the area…”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I made it to where Ryan lived somewhere after four in the morning. Thankfully, he was still awake, and thus let me into the room immediately. It was rather dirty, but I didn’t really have the time to care about the minor details. I handed the cure over to Ryan.

“Here you go. Give this to your grandmother. And as for me, well, I’ll have to take a rest for a while, if you excuse me...”

Tired, I leaned against the old creaking chair and fell asleep.

When I woke up again, I was still in the chair, but someone had draped a rough blanket over me to keep me warm. It didn’t exactly work, seeing at it was full of holes and all, but I appreciated the gesture. Just as I was about to pull it off me, I heard the rickety door opening again, followed by whispering.

“Ah, Doctor, you came all the way here? You shouldn’t have…”

Ryan walked into the room. Judging from the tilted head, he was talking to someone behind him.

“Yes, Shiori is here with the cure…”

The doctor shut up as soon as she saw me, and tried to backpedal out, but the puzzle pieces all fell together as soon as I heard her voice, and saw her face. Standing behind Ryan was no other than Shiori.

“Ah, Miss Elaine, this is the doctor I was talking about, she’s---”

Ryan stops, probably noticing the weird looks both of us were giving each other.

“Eh? You two know each other?”

I don’t know what kind of expression I had on, but judging from how Ryan flinched immediately when I focused on him, it must not have been a very gentle expression. I hate to say this, but I think I actually got angry.

“So you were the doctor the whole time? Then…Why the heck did you lie to me?”

She looked away, shifting somewhat uneasily.

“Shiori didn’t technically lie. Shiori just didn’t tell the truth, that’s all.”

“That doesn’t make it forgivable! You showed up now, with the cure in your hands, when you said that there were no mandragoras to make the cure! You were lying about that, too?”

Perhaps because I pressed her too hard, Shiori shot back with the same kind of force.

“Shiori wasn’t lying! Shiori just didn’t have the Mandragora at that point in time! Also, how the hell did you manage to deliver the cure before Shiori did? There’s no other registered apothecary that can make this!”

She was right. There wasn’t any registered apothecary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I reached the city, it was around three in the morning, way too early for any respectable shop to be opened. Therefore, I went to the only place I could think of which would be open at this ungodly hour; the lawless black market.

The doorkeeper looked as if he wanted to comment upon seeing me rush in in a hurry, but judging from my feral look then, I reckon he thought it was probably wiser to refrain from provoking me. I looked around the somewhat unoccupied market, and then headed towards a stall that I knew would be selling potions; thanks to my razor sharp intuition, as well as a small wooden sign painted with a potion vial.

The owner of the stall was wearing alchemical robes, so I reckoned there was a pretty good chance that he could make the cure.

“Oh, if it isn’t a sweet young lass. What can I do for you?”

I silently walked over, and placed the ingredients required for making the cure, including the gagged mandragora.

“From the ingredients alone, I think you can guess what I want, right? Can you make it?”

He studied the items arranged on his desk, and grinned, rubbing his hands together greedily.

“Sure I can, but it’ll cost more, young lady. Craftsmanship fee, you know.”

“How much will that be?”

“Two gold coins.”

“Are you kidding me? Even if it’s market price, it’ll never go beyond one silver! And that’s the price for buying a bottle of the cure; I harvested all the materials personally!”

“Now, now, young lady, you should know that there’s such a thing called demand and supply. If the need is high, the price will of course be raised higher. Right now, there’s almost no mandragoras to be found in the market, so of course any product that make use of them will be expensive. If you can’t afford it, then you’ll just have to go elsewhere, I’m afraid.”

He laughed vulgarly, showing off his rows of golden teeth, as he turns his attention back elsewhere. As someone who had been in this trade for a long period of time, he probably knows how to deal with a newcomer, who is still adapting to this new environment. In his eyes, I’m probably another fool who doesn’t know her stuff.

I see now. So this is why black markets are for shady characters. As for the upright and just, they’ll hardly ever step in here, because they cannot deal with the antics of these guys. Most people would have given up or paid, or went away elsewhere to look for another alchemist.

But if you think I’m some easily bullied target like others, you’ll be quite mistaken.

I silently unsheathed my rapier, and approached him.

“I don’t think I heard you clearly the first time...How much is the craftsmanship fee?”

The man did not speak, which was wise considering that the rapier was pointing right at his throat. He gulped.

“Two silv---”

I think I had a somewhat intimidating smile on at that point.

“Excuse me?”

“AIIIIE! It’s f-free, missus! I’ll make you the cure immediately, so p-please don’t kill me! I swear it on my life!”

I lowered the rapier just a slight bit, pointing it at his heart.

“If you try anything, rest assured that your heart will be gone within seconds. I can easily puncture a hole through a thick metal shield; your fats will not pose much of a challenge, believe me.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of course, sometime after he had finished brewing, he had tried to get thugs to get the jump on me, but I turned the tables, knocked out all of them, and immediately made my way over to the run-down shack that Ryan was living in.

“I’ve explained my part of the story. Now it’s your turn. Tell me why you lied and sent me outside, when you had a mandragora the whole time.”

“Like Shiori said, Shiori didn’t have a mandragora! Well, at least not when Shiori sent you out!”

“Then how?! You were the one who said that there weren’t any to be found in the market! That black merchant also confirmed that fact, so how did you manage to get your hands on a mandragora without leaving the city?”

“Uhm, big sisters, I think you two should both calm down and---”

Somewhat flustered, Ryan tried to intervene and prevent the argument from getting worse, but because both of us were quite emotionally high-strung, he only succeeded in drawing fire to himself.

“Shut up! Don’t poke your nose in matters that don’t concern you!” x2

“I’m sorry!”

After I’ve I calmed down and thought about it, this matter concerned him the most, actually, but it seems that in both of us had been rather...spirited...because of various reasons, and that fact had splendidly eluded us both.

“Shiori grew it in her garden, of course!”

“Then why the hell didn’t you tell me that you could grow mandragoras?!”

“Because Shiori wanted to be the one to deliver the cure! Shiori requested a fee so that Shiori could delay Ryan until the mandragora in Shiori’s garden finished growing, but then he went off to request a quest, and after all that, he actually found someone who was crazy enough to go through so much to bring back a mandragora! Shiori was going to give it for free regardless of what happened, and if Ryan insisted on paying Shiori, Shiori would ask him to come live at the orphanage!”

“Whaaaaat?”

Ryan, who had been kneeling down the whole time, looked up in shock.

“Ryan, your grandmother is already long past her prime, and there’s no cure for death! The only thing Shiori can do, is to make her last journey as painless as possible! And if one day she really kicks the bucket, there won’t be anyone who can take care of you! So let Shiori take care of you instead, and let your grandmother live out her final months peacefully, okay?”

It would have been a heartwarming scene, really, but at that time, I wasn’t aware that Shiori’s age didn’t match her appearance, so watching the ten year-old Shiori say that to the eight year-old Ryan felt somewhat weird, and I accidentally voiced my thoughts out loud.

“Who goes that far for an unrelated stranger?! You’re a weirdo!”

“Look who’s talking! You ran out in the middle of the day, combed through Lakeside Forest the whole night for a mandragora, barged into the black market to get the cure, and rushed back here before dawn, bleeding from wounds all over! If Shiori is a weirdo, you’re a bigger weirdo!”

And before my very eyes, she broke down into tears. I was still rather angry at being lied to, but seeing a child cry was a rather unpleasant experience, and before I knew it, I had ran out of fuel for being angry, so I decided to pat her head.

*Pomf*

It felt quite good, so I continued doing so.

*Pomf*

“Don’t pat Shiori’s head! To begin with, you’re supposed to be mad at Shiori, Shiori wasn’t completely honest with you, and wasted your time...Boo-hoo…”

Haaah. Doctor or not, mature or not, in the end, she was still a child, after all. It’s a child’s privilege to make mischief and act out of line, and if a child does cause any trouble, the blame should be equally shared with their parents. Speaking of which, why does this young girl want to own an orphanage? I didn’t exactly ask, but, well, to go to such an extent for a random child on the streets...She probably had a similar experience before, didn’t she? What a pity…

*Pomf*

“You’re...not mad?”

“I actually am quite angry, but I’ll never resent a child’s mischief. The day I do that will probably be the day I retire, or the day I die. Plus, the deed is already done and I managed to cure Ryan’s grandmother, though I somewhat admit that you could have saved us a lot of time. Regardless, you still came here with a cure, and thus you can’t be a bad kid, and I’m generally right when it comes to appraising people.”

I made the mistake of standing up in order to approach her, and pain instantly lanced through my injured leg.

Crap, I’d forgotten about that; I had landed badly on it the previous night, falling down a pit while chasing the damned plant.

“You broke your leg? Let Shiori see!”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll be alright after a while, anyway---”

“Shiori insists.”

She made me sit back down, and immediately stuffed something into my mouth. I tried to protest, and found out that it was a piece of candy, so I could only shrug, and watch her start examining my leg and fussing over what a maniac I was, before moving on to examine all my other wounds...Wha---!

“Oi! Don’t take off my clothes! There’s people watching!”

“Shiori can’t treat your injuries without stripping you, but don’t worry! Ryan’s not looking!”

“That’s not the problem here!”

And that was how I first got acquainted with Shiori, the 7th Sephirah, also known as [Netzach].

@Naraku

 

"Mmmm..."

After reading the report, Gaap tapped his right cheek and then opened his mouth.

"That's quite the peculiar situation... Well the point is that you succeed, good job. First here are your rewards..."

The receptionist handed five large knitted pouches and ten small knitted pouches, then he scribbed something on a paper.

"Alright, exceptionally and according to your work, you will be getting 8 Guild Points instead of four, pretty fine isn't it ? Anyway, Elaine, hope to see you later soon for more quests I suppose. Try not to overwork yourself and heal your legs before your next quest, will be a shame if we lose someone."

 

Spoiler: Kobold hunting!

I headed out from the Adventurer guild with my supplies which the guild funded for me *Literally nothing* in the direction of the lakeside village. As the lakeside village is the point that he will use to reorient himself towards the path through the mountain which is known as Hell's Deep. I crossed the tributary and the main river which separate the two towns from each other via two small walkways which I had previously used to make it to Nagrand. Along the way I was hunting in the forest for small lizards and such as well as killed a giant lizard that shot acid from it's mouth that turned into flames when the acid hit water.

I off-sold the lizards skins to the lake town for 6 small copper which I used to get the leather maker in the town to make a wrap for my arm to hold the adventurers guild badge. This entire journey took roughly 6 days. The journey to Helm's deep was uneventful except for meeting two more of these giant lizards which I ate along my way and taking another 2 days. I made my journey through Helm's deep mostly uneventfully however the inside has drastically changed from before, with more splitting passages and more wide open areas. Further the cave had drastically darkened from before. I slowly made my way through the cave noting all kinds of weaponry and armour within.

Whilst taking a path to get to some armour *that had an appearance that may have fitted my head* I noted that it went around a far darker corner and such and even had an active golem upon it's pathway. Deciding not to provoke the golem, I continued on with my journey. Taking 1 day from entrance to exit fighting off some minor inconveniences.

The journey to the moon village was similarly uneventful with myself meeting no monstrous creatures that would proactively attack other species except for as food. The journey to the moon village took roughly 20 days and a further 2 days were spent in the area helping to fend off a grootoid attacks upon the village which seem to have routinely occurred from the state of things in the village however the amount taking this time was greater than normal I believe due to the extra fortifications and outer traps prepared. Having fended off the grootoid and weakened them significantly I headed off towards the bridge crossing of the Milwaukee river. The journey to here took 1 day and was interspersed with grotooid attacks and two attacks bye some unknown river monster a party of moon rabbits where journeying along with me at this time.

Arriving at the bridge grootoid attacks severely lessened, similarly went for the state of things on the other side of the bridge on the journey to the farm grootoids appeared far less frequently and small amounts of kobolds appeared mostly in groups of 1 or 2 every few days. The farm was after the next tributary heading towards Randgriz. The journey to the tributary took 10 days due to avoiding and fighting kobolds and grootoids the final journey to the farm from this tributary took another 6 days due to having to move 2 days up the river to avoid monster nests and other such things whilst keeping sufficient food on my persons.

I arrived at the farm to find it mostly broken with massive amounts of wildly growing vegetation all over it. I found Farmer Henry dead inside of his house or at least a male figure that I believe to have been whom said farmer was based off of. He was dead for at least 3 months likely for years if he had been completely left alone as it appeared the letter alerting the guild most likely was not actually written in his hand. A small band of kobolds attacked me whilst I was on his property claiming that I was an intruder the group was far more intelligent and smelled far different from the other monsters I had faced in the area. I reasoned it out with them and convinced them to head to Randgriz for protection.

I personally began searching the area. Whilst observing I noted that monsters would engage in combat far more frequently and for far less reason than anywhere else I'd been it seems that someone had messed with the monsters mental states in this area. They may be a threat to the local people however at this time the monsters are far more of a threat to each other. 10 days where spent exploring this area avoiding monsters at all costs.

Choosing to inspect a single kobold hideout I prepared some small traps which I had seen employed by hunters in escape paths and so began my journey into the kobold hideout. I snuck around the perimeter of the camp a few times to see how they would react they seemed unable to notice my presence so I pushed on with killing off the sentries. The fights were fairly quick due to their lackadaisical approach to guarding so I was able to enter and exit from all points without being collapsed on. Entering into the proper of the hideout there seemed to be notes of human occupation recently by roughly three people due to the smells however there was also the scent of death in the air. In the end I proceeded to the main sleeping area without much trouble except for a few stray kobolds which were easily dispatched.

However this exercise had left me with a bloody stench hence I was noticed upon entering the sleeping chambers which had a large square machine made from bones within. The kobolds began surrounding me getting ready to attack, two of them charged at me and I summoned my frost armour. The 4 other kobolds jump at me, I spun knocking them to the side with my extremely heavy tail and I jump on to the kobold in front of me and raked his throat with my claws, drawing blood. however I was not satisfied with the bleed due to my blunt claws, so I proceeded to punch into his throat crushing his windpipe and stunning him. The kobold behind me jumped and broke the armour on my back along with removing some of my scales, I proceed to smash her with my tail. I proceeded to run towards one of the other kobolds and jumped on to it's stomach.

The other 4 kobolds had got together again, and were backing away from me. I charged at the kobolds and bowled 2 away. Proceeding to smash my fist into the third kobold which knocked it's head off. The final kobold I crushed with my tail, and proceeded to do a similar action to the final 2 kobolds after the ice armour dissapated. The final kobold stabbed me in the leg injuring and slowing down my progress. I spent 2 days making sure that the areas grass was completely eliminated as well as making it easily find-able by placing the kobolds heads upon farm tools and then planting said farm tools in the ground.

I then left the area and started his return journey which was far quicker due to his rushing to return with said news by getting a special pack fitted to his body to carry supplies. I strongly avoided meeting any monsters as well as not needing to hunt or such on his return trip and thus returned easily within 20 days. *Further at the village the moon rabbit elder gave Tera a letter with something light inside of it to deliver only unto Aria as well as only letting her know about it until it's delivered.(( *text* means omitted from report))*

Spoiler: Notes

Tera got 1 armband for his troubles as well as a pack full of easily edible foods which was designed by the moon rabbits for his help in defending the moon village. 20 tainted Kobold Ears were taken and 2 tainted kobold eggs. Paper and Ink was also gained in the moon village which the report is written upon.
Tera noted that the cave that is known as Helm's deep is full of treasures that are likely fairly valuable however the non major path has many great dangers for those whom want to gain wealth rapidly from this exploration including a golem.
Grootoids are highly aggressive in the area even attacking the moon village regularly.
The situation has been influenced
Time taken for journey there: 48 days
Henry was dead and his carcass was completely decayed with no traces of flesh left
It seems the kobolds were not the ones to have killed him either
Further the monsters have a weird smell and are overly aggressive as well as having far stronger than normal physical might but in return reduced magical ability.
Personally I would advise small scout parties and cordoning of the afflicted zones rather than a full invasion as this is likely to cause more lives lost. As well as a necromantic expert to check upon the device.
The moon rabbits letter was gained and delivered!
Time taken for journey back: 20 days
Total time taken for journey 80 days

OOC: Rather than dealing with the major occurrences before reaching the kobold den which I was supposed exterminate I'm going to write individual SS's on these minor occurences if possible.

Tera enters into the adventurers guild being supported by one of the guards a koala girl with a fairly large wound in both his tail and left leg. "Aria I have returned and the situation was much different to what I was lead to believe in the area from the questboard it appears that some necromancer has messed with the ecological balance in the area between the moon village and Randgriz. At this time I personally don't feel that there is any major cause for concern with the area however it should more than likely be avoided by any unskilled traveller. The rest is written within my report." Tera hands over the sheet of paper and whilst doing this drops the letter directly into Aria's skirt pocket.

 

I returned to the guild hall the next morning and approached the cat-eared receptionist that gave me the quest.
"Here is the report, don't worry the kids have seen the error of their ways and I also haven't hurt any of the guards..... much"

Spoiler: Report

After talking with Aria the receptionist about posting my own quest (which was postponed since I lack the capital for hiring A rank adventurers), I left the guild hall to meet with the client.

I walked down the street towards the old decrepit area of the city, where the buildings had crumbling rooftops, and some races were lying on the floor begging for charity.
I cast them a short look and throw them a few pieces of bread from my breakfast that was too much for my now smaller stomach.
'Thy who don't work, don't eat' is one of the biggest mottos in my home village, but I don't think anyone has enough strength to work on an empty stomach.
To make sure they understood my intention I spoke aloud while looking ahead
"This isn't charity, it's an investment. Go get a job or become an adventurer. I am not inclined to give anything to those too lazy to work".

After a while, I saw a small plaza with a huge old tree in the middle.
Underneath it I saw a small group of human children gathering around something, could it be......
Reaching a sudden realization, I rushed towards the scene.
When I arrived I saw a couple of boys surrounding a small racoonkin girl who was crouching on the ground half-crying, they were using sticks to poke at her and laughing.
I stormed inside the circle of onlookers, shoving a few of them aside, and quickly caught the next stick that was about to hit her.
The boys were surprised at first, but after a moment the one holding the stick I stopped tried to pull it back.
Obviously, it didn't budge.
The boy looked shocked he was losing in power against what looked like a young girl.
I ignored him and turned towards the little racoon girl.
"Are you alright? You are Milly right? the one who sent a request to the adventurers guild?"
The frightened girl looked at me and when she saw I was a girl and wasn't human she looked relieved and nodded.
"Great, I am Rei. The adventurer who accepted your request"
Milly looked a bit shocked when I revealed I was an adventurer but got over it fast and hugged me, I heard a small soft voice coming from beneath my chest
"Please.....help... me"
I patted her head a bit and answered her in a calm comforting voice, using my mother as a reference.
"Shush, it's gonna be alright. Onee-chan here will take care of everything."
It felt weird to call myself "Onee-chan" but it seemed fitting for the situation.
I hope I won't have to be forced to do this again, I can feel my inner masculinity slipping away.

Now then, time to teach some brats a lesson in manners.
I turned around again and faced the group of bullies and looked at them with cold eyes.
Some of them flinched and averted their eyes, but their leader - the boy I stopped earlier- only hesitated for a moment before glaring back, and saying "W-who are you?!".
I admit he has guts, but too bad he using them for something like this.
Seeing their reaction, there might be hope for them yet.

"I am Rei, an adventurer from the Guild. I have accepted the Guild's quest issued by this girl to stop this. The guild doesn't appreciate these kinds of actions in town"

The boy was visibly disturbed by the words "Guild" and "adventurer".
At least he didn't stop to doubt my words. Good.
I continued to scold him.

"Why are you bulling this little girl? Not only is she younger and weaker than you, she is also scared stiff.
Have you no shame or pride? Men are supposed to protect those weaker than them. Has she even done ANYTHING to you to deserve being treated like this?"

The little boys were red in the face, and their mouth was opening and closing like a fish.
I went on.

"You wanna bully someone weaker than you? Fine, don't start whining when someone does the same to you"

I stepped forward and grabbed all of their sticks in flash speed, gathered them into a single file in my hands and broke them all easily in half, all while releasing a small part of my killing intent and Ki.
The boys went pale and froze in place.
The combined skills probably made me appear in their mind many times scarier and bigger than my actual size.
Deciding it was enough, I stopped releasing my aura and once the color returned to their faces I spoke to them again.

"Now you understand what is it like to be at someone stronger's mercy? Do you have anything to say to Milly?"

The boys all looked at each other in the eyes, nodded, and their leader stepped forth, stopped in front of Milly, bowed down 90 degrees and yelled with all his might- "WE ARE VERY SORRY!".
Milly was surprised and shocked at first, but after a while, she regained her compure and nodded.
"Un, I forgive....you".
All the boys smiled in relief.

I then faced the leader and questioned him.
"What was the real reason you bullied her? You were too quiet during my scolding to actually hate her"
The leader hesitated and answered "Well... Graf said that all beastmen are bad and have no place in our town and that he will give good kids who bully beastmen will receive candy and copper coins... if only I stopped to think about it, I should have realized it was wrong"

Hmm, it appears the guild's suspicions were right on the money.
I guess I should return and report this as soon as possible, and also get my rewards.
Right when I was about to head back, I heard the sound of running footsteps and armor juming around.
I looked towards the sound to see a guard in light armor running towards us with an angry look on his face.
If I had to guess........ he is probably that Graf fellow.
When he reached our location he started to try to berate me and the boys, "spilling his spaghetti" so to speak. It was so foul and stupid I didn't even bother to properly listen.
Yes, he is definitely Graf.
There, he even admitted he gave them copper coins for beating up Milly.
Ok, I heard enough. Time to end this farce.
I stepped in front of the stupid guard Graf and just stared at him with a cold glare.
This was an obvious provocation, but only he and I know it.
The frenzied guard raised his fist and tried to land a punch on me, but I cought it and used my leg to push his, and use his own weight as leverage to throw him on the ground across my shoulder.
The basics never fail!
The stupid guard was in shock, he blinked a few times and once he realized he was thrown around by a little girl he stood up and brandished his sword, glaring at me with eyes full of hate.
Okay, self-defense established. Time to retaliate.
The guard swang the sword with all his might but......

POV change​

Graf couldn't fathom what his eyes were seeing.
The small figure that taunted him and threw him around earlier, was standing like nothing after receiving his full-powered sword swing.
Not only that, it was smiling. A sinister smile that could send chills even down the spine of the bravest of men.
It couldn't be, he thought to himself.
How is she still alive? how did she stop his sword?
suddenly the smile disappeared and instead, cold wind pressure started to assault his senses.
This....... this was a familiar sensation. Killing intent. Pure hostile killing intent. The Aura of death.
Fear, no......Terror has taken hold of him.
His knees buckled, he was draped in cold sweat, and he could feel a warm liquid uncontrollably spilling down his pants.
He heard some of the small kids whispering words like "Look, a puddle" "He leaked" "How pathetic" "Loser" "she is so cool!".
He never felt more ashamed and embarrassed, and he knew his reputation will be gone once the kids tell their parents what happened here today, and they, in turn, will report to the guard captain.
No, he was a goner the moment he crossed this adventurer. The Guildmaster was a close friend of the mayor.
Once she will make the report to the guild......
Graf paled in the realization of his inevitable doom, somehow managed to stand up, and ran away from the scene.

The kids surrounded Rei, praising her heroic actions and some of them even swore they would become cool adventurer like her one day.
Mission accomplished I would say.

Spoiler: Notes section

I confiscated the "allowance" the guard was giving away to the children, to teach them that making money the easy way isn't the right way.

I also highly recommend using the words "leak" or "puddle" if the mentioned above guard ever wants to cause trouble, that should make him shut him up for a bit. Though I doubt that will ever become necessary.

@AliceShiki

 

I'm... Not quite sure how you arrived at the conclusion a necromancer was troubling the area, but it does seem like something is affecting the monsters' mind, which is... Troubling.

In any case, you properly filled the request, so here is your reward Tera-san, the 12 Large Copper Coins and... It seems you didn't spend a single coin in expenses? I suppose just the coins then. Oh, and 4 guild points of course.

Take care and rest well, I hope your wounds heal soon~

 

Mmmmmm, glad everything worked out smoothly, you saved the girl and taught the guard and the kids a good lesson, nicely done~

Some guards though... Tsk, why do humans bother coming all the way to these God forsaken lands if they're going to act the same as they did in the rest of the country? Should have just gone to the Empire or something instead... At least the Orc guards don't work like that.

Well, that's not something we should worry about though, the job is well done and here is the reward, 9 Large Copper Coins and 4 guild points~

Take care~

 

Still annoyed at a certain ungrateful stubborn man, Bob made his way to the receptionist's desk.
((OoC: I think I overdid it a bit. Well, I wish you a nice read.))

Spoiler: Tainted Love

‘This taste certainly corresponds to the price’ Bob grumbles while forcing yet another mouthful of grub down his throat.

It was one of the lowest priced meals in the town. The taste to mass and nutrients ratio was heavily skewed towards the latter. One simply could not find something more cost efficient. Still, even though Bob kept repeating it to himself all over again, he could not help but curse every time he swallowed.

In order to move his thoughts elsewhere, Bob reviewed the information on his newest quest: Tainted Love. It was about a herb gatherer called Johannes, who had been recently obsessed with a dream dame. That, perhaps, would not have been so bad if it had not had obstructed his job. But it did, and the pharmacy cannot go on without supplies. What Bob needed to do was to get that dame out of Johannes’ head.

Bob had not met with the man in question yet though. So far, only relatives, friends and coworkers had been interviewed. Two of them, his grandma and coworker Diane thought he was possessed by an evil spirit. The grandma was almost certain of it. That look of disappointment when she had found out that Bob was only E-rank…

*Sigh* “I would rather eat this than look at that face again.”

Anyway, the rest of the interviewed people said the same thing: “He must be on mushrooms!”

Bob could not agree more. There are some really nasty things growing in the mountains. Still, no matter how unlikely it was, a possession remained a possibility.

“Whether it be shrooms or ghost, tonight I will know.” Bob said to no one in particular as he left 5 Small Copper Coins on the table and left.

* * *​

As the sun was about to disappear over the horizon, Bob found himself in front of a run-down inn. Again, the cheapest one you could find. Gently opening the door, lest it broke and he would have to cover the cost, Bob entered.

“Good evening!” He exclaimed.

…

No response.

‘Lucky!’ Bob thought. ‘It seems that annoying miser is still out in town.’ And so, relieved that he would not have to control his temper in order not to punch a certain face, Bob made his way to his room accompanied by creaking sounds of the floor.

*Screech* Closing the door to his 3x3 metres room, Bob threw himself on the uncomfortable bed. Oh, how he hated this enclosed space. And it was even worse when he had just rented it. At the time he had first stepped into this mess, he could not differentiate between clots of dust and spiderwebs. It was as if those two, neither of which should had been present, had merged into one entity. At the very least, he had managed to win 3 days off payment just by cleaning it.

“Well, it won’t be long till I get something better.” Bob reassured himself. And actually, he could have already, but in order to meet his goal faster, he had to put up with a little inconvenience. “The Castle, after I begin the Castle, I swear that I will leave this pit behind!”

Nevertheless, while Bob was busy complaining, the sun had already set and the moon hanged up in the sky.

“It is time!” He took out his treasured pillow and placed it under his head. Almost immediately, the pit and most importantly the bed did not seem all that bad.

The world went dark.

All of the sound disappeared.

The smell vanished.

The horrible aftertaste of the grub stopped irritating his taste buds.

The bed and pillow did not exist anymore.

Void.

Only the neverending chaotic void still remained and in one of its corners, a white, almost translucent, spark came to life.

“Finally home” the spark brightened with joy. Bob did not know when he had started calling ti as such, but here in foreign land, the plane of mind was the only familiar place, where he felt at ease.

“Time to work!” the spark exclaimed as a small portion of it came off and disappeared in the distance.

On its way through the mental plane, it met many other translucent sparks. Though vast majority of them did not even seem to realize its existence and those few rare who did, chose to ignore it and mind their own business.

Without any obstructions, the portion quickly arrived at its destination. And as it did, the answer to the question became obvious: “He really is on mushrooms!”

* * *​

Next morning, right after waking up, Bob marched out of his room with a serious expression on his way.

“Morning Bob, why so grumpy?” An old bald man with grey goatee snickered.

Not wanting to worsen the already spoiled day by speaking to that infuriating man, Bob forwent his usual politeness and just put a couple of Small Copper Coins on a table as he wordlessly left.

After a small delay to buy breakfast, as one cannot fight on an empty stomach, Bob finally arrived at the pharmacy. The opening time was half an hour later, but the owner was already impatiently waiting for Bob’s news. After all, that day, Bob promised to say what was wrong with Johannes along with his plan of treatment. If he did not know, Mr. Rori would have to find another adventurer.

Fortunately for him, Bob indeed had the answer for his troubles…

“This is HOGWASH!” Mr. Rori yelled after hearing Bob out.

“It is the truth, though. Mr Rori.” Bob responded with a faint smile.

“Truth? HOGWASH! Nothing but HOGWASH!”

After waiting for a while for the man to calm down, Bob spoke about the treatment he had in mind.

“Yea, yea!” Mr. Rori snickered. “I know all about you, mediums. You are here just to take an easy money! As if a treatment like that would do something! You are just like that wolfkin fake the baroness favoured!”

“Mr. Rori, if I may…”

“Get OUT! Tell them to get someone more competent next time!”

With no way to get through to that distrustful man, Bob could only leave in dismay. It seemed that this job would end as a failure.

Or would it?

As Bob was leaving the pharmacy, an old stooped figure obstructed his way. It looked at him with those familiar eyes. Yet at that moment, there was a flicker of hope within the disappointment.

* * *​

Johannes did not really have a great childhood. His parents died when he was 10 and ever since then, he was raised by his grandparents. Although they were not wealthy, they did get by. His grandpa was a famous herb gatherer in the town. There was no a stone or leaf in the nearby forests that he left unturned. The young Johannes used to follow him on his trips and together they admired the land, which provided them with a way to live. That lasted, till the day of the accident. It was about time for Johannes’s 15 birthday and his grandpa wanted to gift him something, which he would remember for his entire life. An iron sword. Johannes, at that time, dreamed of becoming a guard and this present was meant to be his grandpa’s way of supporting the young man’s dreams.

However, as they lacked money, grandpa ventured further and further into the woods in prospect wealth. Unfortunately, although he did, in the end, gain enough for the gift, he met an early end at the hands of a bear.

And so, instead of a birthday, a funeral was held. There, young Johannes stood with an iron sword in hand and tears flowing down his cheeks.

Later, perhaps he was blinded with revenge, he followed a party taking on the quest to slay that bear. They discovered him halfway and perhaps they was an irresponsibility or empathy, but they allowed him to tag along. It was on that day, that the iron sword pierced that beast’s throat.

Nevertheless, ever since then, it had been only Johannes and his grandma. The young man forwent his dreams and followed the path of his grandpa, the herb gatherer, in order to make a living.

Then, years later, with a better paid job under a stubborn boss, Johannes still visited his grandma whenever he could. Lately though, only that dame had been on his mind making him nearly forget about the person who had raised him. That day, however, he found a time to visit.

“Hello dear.” The grandma greeted him with a kind smile and warm beverage.

“Hello.” he responded before taking a seat on a chair and taking a sip.

*Thud*

And that was the last thing he did.

* * *​

Just as Jonathan blacked out, Bob waited in a sufficiently near place, already in deep sleep. The whole thing was risky. If Johannes passed out just a meter off or figured that something weird was going on, the plan would fail. In a rush, they could not prepare anything better. Still it worked out.

Now, Bob in the mental plane once again saw that thing. It was a soul spark, about nine tenths as bright and big as average human’s. That, would not be so bad. The problem was, what the spark was completely covered in what seemed like yellow mushrooms with violet spots. The mushrooms roots penetrated the souls’ defence layer and sucked it of its nutrients. Before long, Johannes would become weak minded, senile and ultimately living dead.

Under normal circumstances, Bob would not be powerful enough to deal with this problem. But, because the proximity of his real body was close, he could for a short amount of time risk moving with his entire soul.

And so he did. Leaving just a tiny portion behind in order not to die, Bob moved with his nearly twice and a half of an average human strong soul. As it neared, the shrooms released what seemed like an orange cloud of pollen. The pollen whirled and formed into a perfect woman. Figure, character, everything was just right how Bob would wish it to be.

“Petty tricks!” Bob’s soul grumbled and ignoring the crying silhouette screaming at him that he did not have to do this, he came into a head confrontation with the shrooms. They figuring out that their ability was not warking and the situation deteriorated into ‘devour or be devoured’, divided in two forces. One, kept sucking Johannes’ soul, albeit with increased output. The other tried to latch onto Bob.

But how could he let them do as they please? His soul opened just like a snake’s maw and in one gulp swallowed both the mushrooms and Johannes’ soul in one gulp.

The mental plane reverberated with both human and inhuman shrieks as the shrooms and Bob continuously devoured each other.

For the grandma, it was like seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, and hours into an everlasting moment. She sat there, on her knees praying to every deity she knew of. It was only after she appealed to the entire pantheon, that both Bob’s weared out soul spitted Johannes’ out and both man opened their eyes.

* * *​

After that, Johannes’ now with only 88 percent of his soul left returned to normal. For a few days he would be quite dizzy and over time, the soul should recover to at least 90 percent. In the end, he should be able to live a happy life without any serious mental problems. As for Bob, out of this tussle, he did get some benefits, which of course, he kept to himself and omitted them in his report. However, what he highlighted was that even after solving the quest, that stubborn Mr. Rori still called him a fake and filed a complaint.

Staff: @AliceShiki
Now @Haxagen , is this up to your expectations?