"So, whats the question?" Lisa asked, her smile reappearing moments after the small pout she had sported at Rex previous tease, apparently aware of the humurous undertone behind the gesture.

"I have heard that space mages are extremely sought after, due to their ability to develop and deploy their own personal space storages, since artifacts with the ability are unreasonably rare and expensive as all hell. I was wondering, what other schools of magic are of a similar status, as well as the ones that people consider foul or are forbiden. Would not want to accidentally asociate with a bad guy or a criminal."

"Humm, humm. A good question indeed." Lisa nodded her head in agreement as she thought how to best answer the question.

"Well, I suppose metal mages should go into the category, though not in the same tier as space mages, thats for sure. Of course holy element users are also respected slighty more than most other specializations. Everybody loves being healed after an unpleasant accident. I have heard there are even some rare users who could even regrow ones lost limbs. Just imagine the traffic of work they get? Especially from top tier adventurers, he he." she lightly laughed at the small joke she added at the end, and seeing Rex still smile, continiued on with her answer.

"Of course, depending on the location, some other schools of magic become extremely demanded, like water mages in desert regions, where they can convert mana into water. Or wind mages for sailors that coast the enourmous and dangerous seas. Nobody likes to be stranded in the middle of the ocean after all. Enchanters are also highly sought after in other countries, though less so in ours, since slave trade is not much of a mainstream here, thank lords for that."

"Care to elaborate on that Lisa?" Rex asked, since he had not seen any slave collars or anything of the sort, quite happy with the fact.

"Yes. As I said before, its a practice that's frowned upon here, even if it is not technically illegal. Most who could make use of it though chose not to, precisely because of the stigma. Though there are nations that not only encourage it, but also trive due to it, condemning endless amount of people to a horrible fate."

"And enchanters come into play where?"

"Right. So, enchanters make collars that are used to controll these slaves. Disobey and you are in for a terrible time, as the collar shocks you so hard you will feel sore for days, or so the rumors go."

"Understood. Anything else?"

"I dont think so, though you will have to excuse me if I forgot anything."

"Dont sweat it Lisa. You are helping me a great deal as it is. I will definetly thank you later with monster bounties for your bonuses."

"He he, dont you forget it." she giggled and added, before continuing to answer Rex question. "As for the frowned and outright forbidden schools of magic. Necromancy, poison chaos and demonic. Necromancy and demonic need no explanation, as both are acts of evil, creating countless tragedies whereever its practicioners pop up. Poison is more of a grey area, though still generally forbidden, with only extremely rare cases allowed within some towers of magic in other nations, or so guilds books state. As for chaos, its weird, as the users of it can do many weird things, from making living, talking brooms, to inviting spectral demons into our realm. Its precisely because of its unpredictability and potential for harm, that it is basicly forbidden by every nation. There had yet to be an example of a reliable and beneficial chaos spell. One that can create a reliable and stable result anyhows."

"Anything else? Wait." Rex suddenly interrupted as if he had an epifany regarding their conversation. "What about empaths? Mind or blood mages? Those must exist somewhere right?"

"Well, I am pretty sure that every ruler would love to employ at least a couple of empaths or mind mages to ensure that their laws are followed, or they are not lied to their faces, or so there would be no successfull attempts on their lives. Still, such mages are so rare that people often joke around that for every mind or blood mage, there are at least five space mages. And while rare, there is no actual demand for their services, except of course mind mages and empaths. Like seriously, what does a blood mage do?"

Rex waited a moment on Lisa as she rolled her eyes upward, her eyelids slightly squeezed together, as if trying very hard to remember something, and apparently failing to do so, stopped her attempt, tilting her head to the side, lightly tapping her head with one of her knuckles and speaking.

"Sorry Rex, nothing eles comes to mind."

"Dont sweat it Lisa. You have helped me more than enough."

"He he , happy to help, so dont you forget your friendly guilds attendant."

"No worries. my monster bounties willb ereserved exclusively for you. Already asked marta for your schedule for that exact purpose."

"Awww, you are so sweet. If only everyone who showed their interest in me would be as assertive."

"Now, now miss, I like your cheereness, and find you cute, that much is true. But, my desire to reward you si precisely because you are such a great person. All I hope to recieve in return is the same bubbly and happy attititude, nothing more."

"Okay, you have yourself a deal mister, but dont you go and regret it later."

"Yes, we got ourselves a deal. See ya around Lisa." Rex waived at her, turning around and leaving the guild hall, with the corner of his eye noticing the Light's Oak still sitting around a table, chatting about something, with one rather displeased glare following his profile.

'Sheesh, what did I do to earn the attention of a pipsqueek?' Rex thought with a slight smile on his face, internally laughing about the sitiation. Sure, he did not have the unreasonable eye powers that his dragon bloodline provided the original body, but he had used it enough to pick up a few tricks here and there. The party, or the pipsqueek herself were of no concern whatsoever, even if he did not inwoke the power he held over his advanced paths.

Befpre returning back to his inn, Rex walked around the town for a bit, visiting a the only smithy he was aware off, inspecting the swords that were on display here, In quality, they were better than whatever he had seen in the hunting camp, though not quite good enough if he wanted to tap int o the sword path he had access to. Should he try to do so, the swords would shatter after only a few swings, unable to withstand the sheer power that unleashing said laws would draw through its blade. Rex could instinctively tell that as well. With a sigh, Rex left the smithy, resolving himself to continiue as he was, barely getting a taste of the possible growth opportunities due to the limitations and relatively slow start.

Once back in the inn, he ordered a rather massive meal, consisting of at least four serving of meat stew that was prepeared for the evening. In theend, he had to order a couple more servings to feel properly full, only then retiring to his room, where he spent the remaining time untill midnight expanding his space storage, reacing the size of two palms. His progress would now be quite steller for the coming few weeks, with exponential progres untill the storage would reach the size of one cubicmeter. Then there would be a rather notable block, at least for most normal space mages of this world, he could tell. Then again, space storage of such size was more than enough for his current needs, allowing him to start his work on the next one.

xxxxx

Once again waking up early in the morning, he went down to the first floor of the tavern, greeting the half asleep barkeep.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Hey kid," yawning, the barkeep asked "do you get up so early every day?"

"A habit. My apologies."

"Nah, dont worry about it. Just I will know that I gotta prepeare something so you cannot complain about the lack of hospitality and service at our place, once you eventually move on to bigger things."

"Have that much faith in my ability sir?" Rex asked, a slight smile on his face.

"You get up early kid, ready to work. That in and of itself is an indication of a good character. tallent can only take one so far. Hard work on the other hand? Well, countless geniuses have fallen to the hardworking man, with only the hardworking geniuses surpassing them, and Lords know, those are as rare as a humble and honest noble."

"Ha ha ha ha. Cant argue with those word boss.So, anything I could get to munch on?"

"Aye aye, sit down and I will whip something up quick."

Rex waited for a dozen or so minutes, then devoured the food that was brought before him, thanking the inkeep once he was done and paid for his meal, paying for a few more nights in the same room he had spent so far. he found the place cozy and quiet enough, exactly what he needed after a day of adventuring. With his breakfast sorted, and energy aquired for a day of hard work, he left for guild building, arriving at his destination in a respectable time, becoming better and better at navigating the town. Though he noticed a slight increase of theshady individuals in the early morning streets, boding nothing good for the city. he would deal with the problem when it arises, Rex supposed, should it do so, that is.

Entering the guild building, he once again noticed the pale looking man at the counter, yawning more than one should at this time of the morning, even if they spent their whole night awake, manning the place. Still, with the procedure cler, he walked over to the quest board of F rank, glancing through teh aviable quests. he saw no new quests regarding silverweed tulips, though with the quality of herbs he delivered, the alchemist no doubt realized that there would be nothing of quality to harvest for the next wekk or two, thus not posting a new quest right away.

Rex had considered starting his own business in alchemy, but quickly discareded the idea, loving the thought of proper adventures and grinding more than a possible life of alchemical experiments and brewing potions. Not like he could not do it while being a full fledged adventurer on his down time. Not to mention the ease of accesss to all sorts of herbs and rare materials as a premiere problem solver with a powerfull body and spirit.

And since he was more interested in rewrding Lisa, he ingored the plant or herb collection quests that were placed on the board, focusing on monster extermination ones, or the ones that asked for acertain part of a monster being collected in a certain quantity. Both alchemy and enchanting did use several monster parts as an ingridient for certain recipes. And of course, there were also some monsters that were considered a delicay, or certain part of certain monsters was, making those parts quite lucrative to sell. Still, unlike beasts, with monsters came more danger was well, making the better prices a reasonable thing. Any fool could become a simple hunter, though an entirely different thing could be said about master hunters, that specialized in hunting down certain monsters.

Still, Rex had to take an extra care when selecting such quests, since he was a lone, and with rather limited mana pool at the moment. Though, before he could decide on the quest to pick up, he heard someone aproaching him, likely another F rank, since the steps indicated that the person was coming to the same quest board. As the adventurer stepped up to the board, he turned to Rex and spoke up.

"Excuse me, are you and F rank adventurer looking for a quest to take on?" realizing that the person was talking to him, Rex turned his head to the adventurer in question, his gaze turned slightly to the ground, the person reaching his chin coming into his sight. A man, around Rex age, with dark gray hair, and a somewhat thin build, a bow and quiver on his back, a dagger strapped on his hip. A simple, and a bit mismatched leather armor set donned on his frame.

"Yea, why?"

"Are you perhaps a Solo?" The younster asked, glancing around the empty tables.

"That I am, why?"

"As it happens, our party is one frontliner short for our quest, so, we were wondering, would you like to join us?"

"Us being?" Rex asked, following the youngsters raising hand to notice a group of three standing closer to the door.

"Rex." he spoke, ponting to himself "Whats the quest and how do we split the rewards, should I agree?" The youngster smiled at Rex's words, responding.

"My names Derek, pleasure to make your aquintance.The quest is to take out a kobold nest a few hours away from here. As for the rewards, equal split among the five of us regarding the reward, as well as five way split of the monster bounties we aquire."

"Monster loot?" Rex asked since kobolds were known to hoard whatever they could get their paws on, resulting more often than not in some pieces of armor, or weapons that find their way to their treasury, amidst all the other junk that was placed there.

"Five way split, just like with everything else, giving party members the right to buyout any piece of equipment for the wendors apraised value first, reimbursing the rest their share."

"Sounds fair. I am in, would like to stop by the smithy on our way out. Spear aint the best choice in caves, one the true melee starts." And while Rex knew just how good stabbing with the spears reach could be, his ability to use the entirety of his skill set would be severely limited. sword and board would be much better choice in that regard.

"Not a problem Rex. So, welcome aboard." Rex followed Derek back to his party, where he introduced the rest of his team.

"Guys, this is Rex, he has agreed to team up with us for the kobold quest." he pointed to Rex as he introduced him to the party, the rest of the members being of similar height as Derek, reaching Rex chin at best, making him stand out among the party.

"H-hello. I'm Alex. T-the healer." stammered out a black haired and spectacled buy with scrawny build. His hair was stylized i na rather akward bobcut, making the younster look rather odd.

"He is a bit shy, but a great fellow once you get to know him." added Derek, smiling brightly.

"Rudy. Pleasure to meet ya." spoke the next youngster. Dressed in a light chainmail, a simple sword by his side and a shield on his back. clearly the groups front liner.

"As you probably noticed, he is our front liner." Explained Derek, earning a nod of agreement from Rex.

"Wow, you are big." said the last member of the party, the girly voice quite obvious. "Names Nila. I am an archer, much like Derek here." Rex observed the blonde lithe girl for a second, responding with a quick nod.

"Nice to meet you all. As Derek mentioned Rex the name. Can do whatever is needed, but as per Dereks words, I will be your second frontliner. Lets get this job done."

"Thats the spirit!" Derek beamed and he beckoned Rex to follow him to the counter, where Derek prompty handed over the quest flier to the pale guild attendand. Their party was named Lightning Sparrow, but since Rex was a solo, he had to registered seperately from the party, noting that he was a temporary help for the quest. This ensured that no abuse could take place where a party hired additional people for the quest but hoarded its guild reward, making excuses that they had no additional help. And yes, there had been quite a few such scummy parties before the establishement of such precautions.

With their quest registered, The group, along with Rex left the building, on their way out running in some of Rex aquintances.

"Hey there." Rex raised his hand towards the archer/ rogue leader of the Light's Oak. "Good luck on your quest, whatever you choose." he added with a light smile.

"Samanta." she spoke. "Might as well know my name, if we are going to keep runing ito each other."

"Rex."

"Hey Derek." Samanta waved her hand at Derek. "What quest are you on to enlist Rex here?"

"Sup Samanta. Kobold nest extermination. Needed an extra front liner." Derek replied. "Your friend?"

"Aquintance, though I think he is pretty skilled, if the quest he took yesterday is anything to go by." she replied.

"Well see ya around." Said Rex and Derek at the same time, their party, as well as Samantas, eager to get on with their quests, whatever it may still be in Samantas groups case.

As Rex and Lightning Sparrow left, Rex did hear a friendly chiding of Samanta, coming from the buxom blode. "Why did you not introduce us too? I feel neglected. Buu huu." she made fake crying signs, winking at Rex, whos head was turned and looked at the performance as he left.

"Fine fine, next time all right." Samanta relented. That was the last Rex heard as he turned his head back forward, a slight smile on his face. He did like the blonde from that group.

"Wow. You dont often see Light's Oaks girls so friendly with manly men." Whistled Nila.

"HEY!" the other three biys of the group exclaimed at the same time, clearly annoyed at the girls brunt strike on their masculinity.

"Come on guys. None of you are big alpha beast types. You are more like the loyal pupply that will defend their master till death. Just that said master has yet to be found."

"Rex on the other hand, she glanced at the near two meter tall man. Just look at him." A grumble escaped the trio, though there was no vehemant denial of the observation.

"We are as we are." Rex added his two cents "But I fail to see how that is a bad thing. Whatever girl manages to catch your attention and heart will be lucky."

"Yes, yes. Thats right." The trio agreed with Rex's words, their mood significantly improved.

It took a few minutes for Rex to choose a rather simple and cheap sword and a buckler, spending a couple silvers for each, barely having any coins remaining in his space storage. He did withdraw them by showing his hand in his shirt, where the coins then fell in his hand, Once he paid, he shoved his hand in the shirt once again, as if placing the coins in his 'secret pocket', depositing the coins back in his space storage. With that done, the group departed the city, on their way towards their goal.