A tamer can have more than one pet. More than he could ever name, actually. The only requirement is power. His power must be stronger than all of his tamed pets together. Such as a weak general can not control his army, a weak man cannot control a dragon.
-Excerpt from Adventurer Hearth's guide to Monster Taming
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The ground here is much softer than the sidewalk on Earth. While the dirt will get you dirty, it is much better for the back. I also found that overripe Jelly Fruit will taste like Jelly from earth. Although it tends to taste like apple most of the time, I have found a few citrus-y ones.
Unfortunately for the poor, showers are not free. The river by the goblin village, though, is. As long as you don't get too close, they don't care, even if you're upstream. I don't think they realize what that means. Or they don't care. Sabrina really liked the water, splashing it around and playing.
After my scrub, I was faced with a dilemma. Do I keep doing rank one quests, or do I try a rank two quest for more money? A rank two quest is for those who wish to go further than running errands as an adventurer. While it isn't easy to keep climbing ranks, staying at any rank above three provides enough income to be a stable career. Since I have very few practical skills for this world, I will definitely have to take this route anyways. My only problem is that rank two quests tend to have a party requirement.
There is nobody who would want to team up with a tamer, even if I am probably the BEST tamer this world has ever known. I just can't prove that, yet. Maybe I could get one of the guards to come with me? In the game they had guards accompany the player on the first mission, but since that didn't happen, I assume that was something put in the game for a part of the tutorial. Maybe I can get Eyebrow to come along anyways?
My hand reaches into an empty pocket. Ah! My Jelly Fruit is gone? I look over at Sabrina, who I have been feeding subconsciously. At least I still have the overripe ones for me. Sabrina nuzzles into my hands and closes her eyes, enjoying the feeling. I pet the spoiled fox for a while before we go to pick more. Then we can go ask the guards!
After stealing picking fruit until my pockets were full, I found Eyebrows guarding the gate again.
"Don't you guys ever do anything else?" The subordinate guard shakes his head while Eyebrow takes his time to think.
"We play cards?" I am so, utterly disappointed in them. They are the guards that stand there 24/7 doing nothing. Just like in the game.
"How about you guys accompany me on me first rank two quest? The adventurers in the guild seem pretty averse to partying with a tamer. That makes it hard to do a rank two quest. Actually, that makes it impossible." They look tempted to leave their posts.
"We can't. It would defeat the purpose of introductory work for rank two adventurers." I had already thought of this possibility.
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"Then just supervise me and step in only to save my life. That would make it better, right? In fact, I bet if you bring this idea up to your boss, he'll give you a promotion to that new role." Now I just need to tempt him. If I keep at it, I'm sure he'll crumble. Actually, he looks like he might crumble now.
"This- I can't. There is a possibility the boss will dock my pay for leaving my post for that idea." He's really close. His voice actually cracked a bit when he was talking.
"Yeah, I get you. The idea may only get you promoted, get you a good standing with the guild, get you a pay raise, give your job an adventurous feel, help you find a nice girl and basically increase the value of your life, but docked pay is a pretty strong deterrent." He looks defeated.
"Stay here." Success! Now to see if his boss likes it.
I would look at my watch if I ever wore one. It feels like it's been forever. Maybe I should just go inside. Oh! There's Eyebrow. He looks very happy. And that makes me very happy.
"My boss likes your idea. I'm getting promoted! Thank you very much."
"Great! Let's head over to the adventurer's guild and start the rank two quest then." He nods happily. As we walk over- is he skipping? I turn my head to look, but he is walking normally. Okay. I turn my head back around, but I hear the rhythmic thumps unique to skipping. I whip my body around as fast as I can. Yeah, he's skipping. He freezes as he sees me. He gives me the pleading look, as if to ask never to talk about it. It's not like other people weren't watching, but alright.
After we made it to the adventurer's guild, Janice the receptionist waves me over. She seemed to be on break, as there was another receptionist taking requests. I follow her into what seems like a break room. There are two, very nice looking couches and a coffee table in the middle.
"Hi, what's up?" I ask. She sits down giddily and gestures me to sit across from her.
"Was it you who suggested the rank two help system?" Is that what it was named?
"Yes." She grabs my hand and jumps up and down in her seat.
"Thank you thank you thank you!"
"Uh... You're welcome?" She realized she was missing a vital part of the explanation and calmed down.
"Because of you I can finally quit and become a rank two adventurer! I was weak so nobody wanted to party with me, but now the guards have to! And after that we can take quests together."
"So like a party then?"
"No, no no no, if I officially party with a tamer then it'll give me a bad reputation. We'll just take quests and adventure together." I give her a confused look.
"So like a party?"
"No! Let's call it a... Social gathering." Facepalm.
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Author's note:
Whoopsie, I released the chapter a bit early on accident. Had to edit it to a finish a bit early. Still don't know how I did it though.
Edit: Found it! Tab + Enter = Early, unfinished releases. Good thing I was pretty close on this one.