After recieving both the monster bounty manual, as well as the work schedule of Lisa, Rex walked over to the quest board, checking on what was aviable to his rank. And while he knew he was definetly above F rank, even if relying only on his weapon skills and combat experience, he would much rather play it just a bit safe, prepearing the foundation for his growth and developement. Thus, as he looked through the quests, he noticed a few possible choices.
The first few looked to be some of the smaller vilages requesting some pest extermination. One had a probable goblin nest in their vicinity, and while they had a general area in mind, quite a bit of time would be wasted in the search itself, thus making the quest much better choice for a full party with at least one specialized scout and while Rex could surely do it, the reward was not worth the effort he would have to invest. The next few were about sightings of kobolds. Humanoid like creatures that would best be described as a combination of man and hyena or a many dog. Quite barbaric, with barely a resemblence of language and extremely agressive, like most monsters. Not nearly as universaly hated as goblins though. Those little shits took the crown in near every category of the 'detestable and despised'.
Another one that caused a slight smile to appear on his face was slime hunt quest. The local alchemist was running out of slime cores, so he was in need of a fresh batch. While the quest requested at least fifteen to be delivered, any extra would be gladly accepted. As he though back on slimes, he could remember the few that this body had dealt with. The creatures were just like the typical fantasy story would portray them, a jelly like creature, the size of a german sheppard, with a single core floating within said body. To deal with the creature, one had to strike the core hard enough, causing its jelly like body to burst and evaporate, leaving behind a snall puddle and the core. They were slow and quite easy to take down, especially if you had a spear or any other similar reach weapon. Still, Not quite what Rex was interested right now.
"How? What do we have here?" Rex spoke in a quiet manner as he noticed another quest that drew his attention. It was a gathering quest, also posted by the towns alchemist. It required the collection of silverweed tulip, a rather common herb with slight medical properties. The catch to it was that it only grew in very specific conditions, and would often attract a certain type of wolfs to inhabit the location, creating a sort of symbiosis with the beasts. The plants get to be protected, and in return, the compound that the herb secretes raises the fertility rate of the beasts, as well as elevate their healing factor and regenerative ability. And while no super regeneration is had, the beasts are smart enough to noticed the beneficial effect of the plant. As a result, where there is silverweed tulip, there will always be wolfs.
As Rex examined the quest, it having a general map leading to the location of it, he failed to notice the aproach of another adventurer, though his instincts did no react because there was no negative intent or anything like that. Once he had decided to take it on, his hand met with the adventurers, as both had reached out to grab the same quest poster.
"Sorry brother." said the owner of the voice, as Rex turned his head, matching the voice with the woman before his eyes. Clothed in light, but sturdy looking leather armor, with leather boots and gloves that matched the chest armour, clearly made as a set, as well as a couple of daggers by her sides and bow and a quiver slung over her back. Her hazel nut brown hair was tied up into one neat braid that reached her shoulder blades. Her face looked rather cute, with small and delicate nose, slightly sharp eyes and heart shaped face. Her hazel brown eyes sparked with equal amounts mischievousness and playfullness.
"Where is the rest of your party?" she asked, slowly retreating her hand from the poster, it was first come first serve in the guild after all, pointing to another corner of the guild hall with her thumb. Mines in that corner. Slightly rowdy, but a good bunch.
"Hmm? No, I am a Solo."
"Wait, what? Solo? And you plan to take the quest on?"
"Hmm? Yes. Its just wolves, besides the silverweed tulip is quite a nice herb to use in not only the quest but multiple usefull tonics and potions."
"What rank are you friend?" she asked with a slight furrow of of her brows.
"F rank, obviously. Why would I look at it otherwise."
"Sigh. Listen brother. That quest if meant for a party. Its too dangerous for a Solo, especially of the same rank as the quests."
Rex just shrugged his shoulders,no odea how to deal withe the good loking woman. "Tag along if you like. Dont much care. Hell, I will even equally split the reward."
"And why would we do that?"
"Because you look like that is exactly what was on your mind."
"And how would we split the reward then?" she asked, one eyebrow now raised.
"What was it, equal split of the reward with each member of the group, while maintaining the the right to keep whatever that it is that you have personally collected, within reason of course."
"Nice try man, but we aint having no man around our party." Rex looked over her shoulder, even as he noticed a slight worry in her face. The girl was deffinetly the nice, bleeding heart one, having a hard time ignoring injustices and tragedy. Actually focusing on her group, he now noticed that the remaining four were also girls, and since they were in the guild, no headwears adorned them, allowing him to see that each and every one of them was quite pretty.
"Yea, gotta agree with you lady. Aint no way I am sticking my neck into that mess. See ya around." Rex replied to her, loud enough to be overheard not only by her, but also her awaiting party, and, with the contract in hand, turned around headed over to the cepection hall, placing his chosen job to be registered. Unbeknownst to him, a couple eye twitches creeped on the faces of a few pretty ladies as they glared at him. The girl party gave gim all sorts of red flags, especially since none of them looked overly spoiled. A bunch of pretty girls, with no real background, with only the general protection of the Guild? Yea, that screamed for a bunch of scum or sleazy nobles to sink their teeth in, and, as ufn as it sounded, Rex was not at the point where he could safely mess around with that kind of annoyance. Truth be told, he himsellf was not sure he even wanted to.
"You sure you want to take this one?" the middle aged attendant asked Rex, a slight worry on her face. "It is recomended for a party, besides its your first quest. Maybee something a bit more safer?"
"Its fine. I have plenty of time, and I am interested in the plant itself, so it covers a multitude of tasks in a single quest. So please."
"Hey Marta!" a vomanly voice sounded dirrectly from Rex's back, as he felt an arm landing on his shoulder.
"Ahh, hi Veena. Just wait a moment. I will be done in just a moment." The attendant, Marta, replied, a small smile forming on her face at the presence of the woman.
"Dont rush. Light's Oak will join the new kid. We will show him the ropes and dangers of underestimating the danger a quest can entail."
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"Are you sure? You dont ussually..." Marta did not get to finish, as another voice, slightly irritated, by the sound of it, interrupted her.
"YES! Now hurry up please. Times wasting." Rex did hear a much quieter grumble of "I'll show you a mess."
"Right." Marta akwardly smiled. "You dont mind, do you?" she then asked Rex, who did not look pleased with the development.
"Yea, I would rather not."
"Nonsense." the girl whose hand was still on his shoulder spoke "Why dont you take the chance to learn from a stable and experienced party?" Rex's head slowly turned to her, a furrowed brow marring his face.
"Why dont you rank up first then? Talk then, yea?"
"Just me Marta, thank you. Those girls look like trouble to me." Rex felt the grip on his shoulder get sligtly firmer, but the girl was nowhere near the build of Rex, muscle mass or mana reinforced to matter, so he spoke to her. While his voice was quiet. the now assembled party right behind him could hear it.
"I dont care what gripe you have with my comment, since it was factually true, I advise you back off me. I honestly would preffer not hurting anyone right now. I have a quest to attend to. On that note, I suggest you find another girl with proper background and channels for your little group. You are a walking buffet for the trully powerfull and detestable. Dont want to get into that mess. No thank you."
With those words spoken, clearly catching the girls in a stupor, he brushed off the hand from his shoulder, took the quest and left the building, leaving the five girls standing there for a minute, clearly stupefied about what just happened.
"Oi, gals? I think we just got rejected. Royally." Finally spoke one of the girls. With gray hair, well trained and lithe body, her blue eyes were calm as a lake on a peacefull day. She wore a light chainmail armour, a sword and shield strapped to her side and back respectively. She then bursted into laughter. "Alurial, I think your ability to scare off men has just gotten an upgrade. ha ha ha ha."
"Ow, shut up Meru." The little and angry loli girl, dressed in a light cloth apparel and a cloak grumbled back, a clear pout forming on her face.
"Come now girls. Its no time to squabble." spoke up the third girl. She too was dressed in clothes made of cloth, a staff in her hand. What stood out the most about the woman was her curvaceous body and red eyes that contrasted her blonde hair. A soft and sweet voice, combined with her gentle smile quickly pacified the other two, who seemed to be ready to start a cat fight. The loli girl, Alurial, looked so for sure.
"Ria is right girls." spoke the hazel haired and eyed girl that had spoken to Rex at the job board, ponting to the blonde busom beauty. "What say you? Lets find a job top take on. Veena, you coming?" she asked, turning her head to the girl who had placed her hand on Rex's shoulder. Veena was a dark haired woman, with lithe body, and similarily to her hazel haired friend, was also wearing a set of leather armor.
"Samanta is right girls." spoke up Meru, her laughter having died down. "And while it stings to admit, the boy was right to an extent."
"What hogwash are you talking about?" grumbled the half elf loli volcano, clearly not happy with the insinuations. "I mean, we have been doing this for a few months now, so can we really be called an experienced adventurer party?" thne she added in a much quieter tone "And I see how he couldcome to the conclusion he did."
That did bring about a moment of silence, each girl of the group well aware of the truth in Rex's statement. Its not like they wanted such danger to constantly hang over their heads. It was precisely because they had been annoyed and pestered by the males of whatever party they joined, that they were now in the situation they were.
"Hmph." a snort came from Alurial, soon replaced with an evil looking smirk. "Why dont we give him a little taste of the trouble then?"
"Danger alarm. Our little demn is hatching a wicked plot." quickly added the gray haired warrior of the group, causing a light laughter to escape the lips of the group.
"Maybee next time?" questioningly asked Samanta, nodding with her head to the quest board.
"Fine. I will have more time to plan it out."
"Ow my." the blonde beauty smiled, covering her face with her free hand lightly. "Someone has caught Alurials eye."
"S- shut up bi boobs." Alurial blurted out, clearly flustered by the comment, reverting to the simplest insult she could come up when regarding the blonde healer, automatically aiming for the most prominent feature of the girl.
"Its okay Alu. You can still grow. Half elfs still continiue to develop their bodies well into their fifties. There is still plenty of time for you." Needless to say that caused the little tsundere to go beet red, quickly covering her head with a hood, dissapearing from the clear vision of her groups eyes, only a hooded figure standing before them.
"Lets see what else we can find today." Spoke Samanta, returning the attention of girls to the task at hand.
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After leaving the guild building, Rex departed the town. Based on the dirrections on the map, he would need at least a few hours to reach the area where silverweed tulip was reported to grow. All he would need to then is to take care of any volves getting in his way, and a relaxed herb hathering awaited him. Since he had free time, at least as far as his mind was concerned, he delved into the ways in which he could increase his onw personal combat capabilities. using space laws was instantly off the table, the last time still clearly fresh in his mind, only barely more than a week passed since that time. Similarily, the soul path was another no go for him at the moment, his soul still not nearly strong enough to exert the necessary pressure on others. The recently aquired sword path was also a no go. He neither had a sword, nor his spear was of a high enough quality to withstand the power of the law.
So, the only remaining tool that was much more freely usable was the path of blood. He could use both hisown blood, as well as the blood he spilled from his enemies to both heal and sustain himself, as well as restrict his enemy. And while in theory he should be able to even bend the blood still coursing through the bodies of his adversaries, this world, while rich with mana, had a few pecularities that heavily hindered ranged casting, allowing for only rather simle and crude spells to be lobbed at others. Though he had a few ideas as to somehow slightlly circumvent the problem. man was heavily maliable, at least most of the time, and as someone who had worked with mana constructs quite a bit, he had a rather developed understanding of its nature and tendencies.
He coul, for example create hardened blood chains from the blood of his enemies, using it as a means to attack, similar to how he had using his mana constructs in the other world, since blood was part of ones body, thus, escaping the rather heavy supression of open world mana manipulation. Or so it seemed, as Rex was manipulating a miniscule mana chain, no larger that a couple of centimeters, made from a small puncture in his hand. He needed to test it with the blood of his enemies, or unlucky monsters, becoming his test subjects in this case. What he needed to figure out is when can he claim the blood as his property, due to his high attainment in the path. Was it enough to be spilled, or had the owner of said blood die first, before he was free to act as he willed with it. he also had to mind his rather limited mana pool, even with the infinite reservoir of mana that was the world itself around him. Rex was not yet adept enough with the siphon to be able to constantly drain it and use for both his bodily refiment and refilling of his personal tank. And the refinement was more important at the moment.
There were no notable interruptions on hiw way towards his destination, if he disregarded the couple of wild dogs that had the poor judgement that he would serve as a perfect snack to the due. Quite quickly and effortlesly, both creatures were punctured and soon enough, lying in the puddles of their own blood. Rex could only thank the heavens for providing him with a timely assistance, allowing him to test his few hypothesis regarding the blood path.
First, he learned that everything he spills is, rightfully, his to controll, the owner no longer having any claim on the spilled blood, providing him with a rather easy access to the material needed for his art. He was quite happy with the discovery, heavily expanding his ability to controll the battlefield, even if he could not utilise it to the fullest of its capabilities as of yet, his mana pool and ability to multitask being severely limited for the time being. Curse recovery and the necessary growth of a soul fragment.
Secondly, as he had tested with his own blood, no matter how little, the blood was considered a part of the body, thus becoming a perfect tool to be used for mana constructs and other spells outside the body, clearly allowing for much more complex things to be acomplished. Of course, blood being blood, it provided the caster with a whole new list of problems that needed solving. And yet, regardless of all that, Rex was quite pleased with the state he was now finding himself into. While not everything was solved, he was more than happy with the current standing as it was. Finally out of his own musings, he looked at the rocky terrain ahead of him, having reached the foot of the mountain that the location was supposed to be at.
"Well, time to get to work."