After submitting the goblin head, I was given a mercenary badge. The badge was a rectangle of hard black leather with six white pentagons stamped into it, three on each side. One of the pentagons also had a white triangle stamped into one side, forming one-fifth of a star.

From how the fat man described it, as I completed jobs, I would get triangular stamps around the pentagons, eventually forming a star with five points. So right now I was considered trash, as I did not even have a whole star yet, but only one-fifth of one.

There were also a couple of different coloured triangle stamps that varied depending on the type of work a person did.

* White: Monster slaying.

* Green: Protection.

* Red: ‘Bounty Hunting’

* Yellow: ‘Transportation of goods’

* Brown: ‘Info gathering’

* Purple: Production

* Blue: Exploring

Some of the job colours were a bit suspect. Red could be bounty hunting, but I got the feeling it was a little less legal than that. And Yellow was obviously smuggling. Brown seemed harmless at first glance, simply info gathering. But I suspected it was most likely spying.

The fat man definitely let on that there was more to the colour of jobs than met the eye. Heck, the man winked so much I thought his eye was having an orgasm.

Not wanting the geezer Gladgleer to find out I had joined the mercenary guild, with all his hoity-toity morals, I climbed up to the roof of my building. When I was at the top, I grabbed the roof edge lip and swung myself down and through the open window shutters. Unfortunately, I did not stick the landing and made a loud thump noise on the floor.

I quickly headed to my room, closed the door, jumped under my bed sheets and closed my eyes. A moment later the door was opened.

“Where have you been?” Gladgleer stood in the doorway holding a lamp.

“Wuh?” I gave a big yawn and blinked my eyes. “What are you talking about? I’m sleeping.”

“You were gone for over half the day. And did you jump in through the window?”

“Me? Through the window? No way. I got back about two hours ago and went straight to bed. And I was just cleaning up the outside of the shop, like you told me to.”

Gladgleers scrunched his brows. “I didn’t tell you to clean up anything. You disappeared after finishing preparing a batch of Balno root!”

“What are you talking about? After I finished preparing the Balno root, you told me to clean up outside. Do you not remember?”

“...Did I?”

“Could you close the door? I’m trying to sleep.”

After the geezer gave me one more stare, he closed the door while mumbling under his breath, a confused look on his face.

Gaslighting 101, never admit you’re wrong.

…

I woke up to the feel of my hands burning.

Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I sat up and opened the door to let in a blast of light. I could hear the clanking and banging of Gladgleer downstairs.

I brought my hands up and inspected the wounds. They looked very nasty. The wrist I could hide with my sleeve, but my left palm? No. I would have to wear a glove to hide it from Gladgleer, which would actually be great. It would prevent my hands from getting all bloody and gross if I decided to pop another head. Also, medieval society was not the cleanest, so gloves would be welcome.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The wounds looked like they would leave some pretty noticeable scars, but whatever. Healing potions wouldn’t do much at this point anyway. If it were a fresh wound, healing potions could heal it to leave no scar, but as it has already begun to heal on its own, the scars would remain, but perhaps become slightly smaller. Of course, there is a potion that fixes scars, but that was for rich noble ladies and pretty boys. Totally useless in my opinion.

I ate a quick breakfast of oats. That's right, oats, like a fucking horse. No yogurt, no milk, just oats.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs where Gladgleer was setting up the equipment of cauldrons, glassware, copperware, and scales, he looked over to me and pointed. “Today you will help me inside.”

Hmm. Looked like sneaking out during daytime hours was over. Perhaps I could find an excuse? “Ah, but I was going to meet up with a friend today!”

Gladgleer snorted. “What friend?”

Yeah. I knew that might have been a long shot. I just couldn’t stand little booger pickin kids! It's like they had endless green gold up those snozes of theirs!

“My friend’s a cat!” Let’s see if this works.

“Well, then I’m sure your friend can wait.”

Damn. This geezer doesn’t even care that a child wants to play with their fake cat friend! Outrageous!

…

Night had fallen, and I was back at the mercenary guild. I had managed to sneak out sneakily like a sneaky sneak. Good thing I knew how to climb. It was also a good thing that I had set up a rope outside the window beforehand to make it easier.

The guild stunk of sweat and booze, and I took a big breath of it that reminded me of home. The room was as full as the last time I was here. Many people were drinking and eating at tables and at the bar. There was also some blond wench taking orders in a very scandalous-looking outfit.

Ignoring the boisterous room, I focused on the job board. It was a cork sheet, or something similar to cork, and papers littered it from top to bottom, held in place with a variety of stabbable material. Needles, pins, an arrow, a real hodgepodge. Stamped on the papers were five-pointed stars and half-stars of varying colours.

For my skill level, I needed to look at the half-star jobs. Which were few in number, but I saw a couple.

Rat Extermination(White)1/2 Star: Mercenary needed for discrete rat extermination. Location provided upon acceptance.

Fishy. Ocean levels of fishy.

Group Location(Brown)1/2 Star: Any information about the whereabouts of the Yellow Lion Gang.

Persons Information(Brown)1/2 Star: Any information on the Yellow Lions’ skills.

Seemed that some gang had pissed off the wrong person.

Woklin Leaves(Blue)1/2 Star: Woklin leaves required, to be dropped at specified location provided upon job acceptance.

Now this was more my speed. I did consider the Rat Extermination job, but I feel like I would be shanked to make sure the location wasn’t leaked. Also, rats came in a lot of different sizes here. They could be the size of dump trucks for all I knew. Collecting some Woklin leaves on the other hand. Easy! Plus, I have a feeling I wouldn’t be shanked to hide the location. It was most likely just a drop point. I had a bit of experience with such things.

To my knowledge, Woklin leaves were useless. But, my knowledge of herbs was limited, so perhaps they had a use in some concoction. Also, the star was blue, which I thought meant exploring, which was odd. But I suppose to find leaves I need to explore.

I grabbed the wooden stake that held the paper in place on the board and gave it a tug. The stake came loose and I quickly grabbed the paper job posting before it could fall to the ground. Not knowing what to do with the stake, I simply stabbed it back into the board and then walked to the fatso at the bar.

“Hey Donny! How much for this one?” I slapped the job onto the counter.

The man gave it a quick read. “One sec.” He walked back into a room behind the counter and closed the door behind him. I heard a faint ‘calunk’ sound, followed by the unmistakable creaking of hinges over the din of other drunk patrons.

After a minute, fifty-nine seconds longer than one second, Donny returned. “Five copper per gram.”

Hmm. That was pretty good. It wasn’t like anybody else had a use for them that I knew of. “Alright, I’ll accept this job. Now where’s the drop point?”

Donny slid a folded piece of paper across to me. I slapped my hand over it and pulled it towards myself, then put it straight into my pocket without opening it. Donny gave a small smile and a nod at my actions.

I left the bar. While walking down the alley, I looked over my shoulder and confirmed nobody was following me. I doubt someone would over such a small half-star blue job such as this one, but a person could never be too careful in situations like this.

Once I was out of sight of the guild hall/bar, I opened up the folded piece of paper. On it was a description of the drop-off point, alongside a date, no doubt the due date for the job. I had two days to collect as many Woklin leaves as I could. Then I would get some money!