Chapter 10

The conversation with Kalastrovax had been enlightening. I hoped that a partnership with him would bring me power and help me with being an adventurer. I also held hope that releasing him really could help with the defeat of the Demon King. I woke up feeling refreshed. I was finally an adventurer. We could start taking contracts today. Sure we would have to take some contracts without all of the glitz and glamour we had hoped to complete, but they nevertheless needed to be completed. I hope for a standard monster contract. Go here and kill a group of monsters. Bring back the proof that you took out all of the monsters and you would be paid. After a certain number of contracts were completed we would be upgraded to Iron rank and be allowed to work on more difficult contracts with greater rewards. We got out of our beds and put on our gear. We then went downstairs to have some breakfast. We would need that for whatever contract we would go out on. Hopefully it wouldn’t take more than one day. I didn't want to waste the coin for a room we weren't sleeping in. The maid brought us out some eggs and bacon. I had gotten tired of all of the oatmeal we had eaten on the trail. We finished our meal and then headed for the adventurers guild. We were both excited to get into the adventuring life. As we made our way towards the guild we talked of what kind of contracts may be available for us. Maybe a contract for some roaming goblins messing around with some farmers' livestock, or maybe a bandit group on the loose. We walked into the guild. It was pretty empty this early in the day. We made our way towards the receptionist. She was working on some paperwork behind the bar. She looked up when she heard us approach.

“Hello, is there anything that I can help you with?” I answered her. “Yes, we are looking for any contracts that are available for pewter rank adventurers.” She replied. “Let me check and see what we have available.” She began shuffling through a pile of papers looking at what she had available. She put three papers on the counter and said. “These are the only contracts we have available for pewter rank adventures.” I took a look at them. Each of them had a small description of what task was required and the amount that would be paid upon completion. The first contract was not what I expected for an adventurer. The contract read “My son has gotten sick from a purple mushroom he ate. We need someone to go into the woods and find the herbs so that an alchemist can make a potion to cure him. Contract pays three bronze coins.” I picked up the second contract and read the description. It was closer to what I had expected but still closer to real adventuring.“Giant rats have invaded my cellar. I’ll pay two copper per rat tail.” Not feeling like the third would be any better than the other two I read the contract. “Goblins sighted at the Glen Grove farm. Will pay one bronze for every goblin killed. I looked at the receptionist and asked if this was the normal kind of work an adventurer could expect. “Yes, at your level in the guild simple tasks like this are the normal thing for pewter ranks. You can do anything from finding someone's stray cat to hunting down a group of troublesome goblins. It's all about what contracts we have and what level you are at.” I nodded to her. We took the contracts over to a table and started discussing which we would rather do. I said “ The herb gathering or the goblin hunting sound like our best bet to me.” Sora looked thoughtful for a moment and said. “Let’s do the herb gathering contract. I don’t feel like killing goblins right now and I really don’t want to deal with rats. A gathering mission sounds like an easy way to get used to adventuring.” I thought about what she had said. I too didn’t want to hunt down the rats. Though it seemed like the goblin hunting could net us the most coin for the contract. Whereas the herb gathering only had the possibility of three bronze though it may be the safest option. I looked at Sora and nodded, “ We will do the herb gathering contract then.” We went back to the receptionist and told her which contract we were taking. She jotted it down on a piece of paper. “Alright whenever you complete the contract return here and I will give you the pay for the contract. Here is some general information about where the herb can be found and the location of the small village where the woman who asked for the contract lives.”

We left the guild to go back to the Inn and get our gear ready to leave. I didn’t know how long we would be gone. So I let the Innkeeper know that we might be gone for a few days. She said that wouldn’t be a problem and that she wouldn't charge us for the days we were not there. She would rent our rooms out while we were gone and when we came back we would pick up on the stay when we returned. That sounded great to me. I had been concerned about wasting money on the Inn if we weren't even going to be staying there. Knowing that I could save a little money I felt a little relief. Before we left we checked through the extra information we had been given by the receptionist. It told us we were looking for a blue herb that was commonly used in potions for curing sickness. We were headed to a little town in the north of the kingdom. It would take us the rest of the day to get to the town and then we could begin looking through the forest for the herb. It was still fairly early in the day so we chose to head out straight away. We still had some supplies left over from our trip to the capital, but we chose to go to a local shop to pick up the basics just in case something happened. There was a small general store just down the road from the Inn. We asked for basic food supplies for a week and the man brought out what we needed.

With the basics taken care of we headed out. It was a different route than we had taken from Lancia. We were headed to the north. I had never been anywhere besides Lancia in my life, not counting the last few weeks. So I didn’t know much about this part of the kingdom. Much of the south was the same. The climate was usually quite pleasant. We weren't too far from the ocean. There was a river that ran beside the Capital and out towards the ocean. We had to cross that river to get into the northern part of the kingdom. When we exited the city we headed for the bridge that would take us across the river. You had to pay one copper coin to use the bridge. The only other option was to swim and I didn't want to do that. So we paid our toll and made our way across the bridge. The journey was much the same as it had been on our way towards the Capital. Open plains with forest inters paced. We walked and talked about what we would do once we got there. Hoping this contract would be more interesting than what it had stated. Even if it wasn’t we would still be paid for what we did. When we were done with this we could go out on another contract. We stopped for a quick lunch. Just some meat and cheese that we used to make ourselves a simple sandwich. After lunch we got up and continued walking. After a few more hours we caught sight of the village. It was a rather small village. There were only about ten buildings gathered together with a larger building near the middle. We walked into the village and were greeted by a few villagers that asked us why we had come. We told them about the contract we were undertaking for the adventurers guild. They led us to one of the small houses and introduced us to the woman who had asked for us to search for the herb. We went into the house and there was a woman in there at the bedside of a young boy. She turned to look at us. “Can you please help my son?” I answered her. “We will do everything we can.” “My son was out with me when we were walking through the nearby forest and I took my eye off of him for a second and I saw him put this purple mushroom in his mouth. I made him spit it out but he’s been sick for almost a week. The local healer said that there is a blue herb deep in the forest that will take care of the poison.” “We have the map for the known locations of the herb. We will head out right away and get back as soon as we can with the herb.” With that we left and headed into the forest.

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We only had a few hours of daylight left so we made the most of it. We began walking through the forest. After a couple of hours of walking we decided to make up a camp. Hopefully tomorrow we could find the herb and return to the village and start making our way back to the Capital. We set up our tent and made a fire. We made ourselves another sandwich apiece. We just sat around the fire and chatted about our journey and what the future held. As it got dark Sora went into the tent and went to sleep. I stood watch for the night. I just sat and watched the fire. When it was time to switch places I woke her up and went into the tent. I went to sleep and it was peaceful. I had no dreams and woke up feeling refreshed. I crawled out of the tent and met Sora sitting around the fire. We cooked up some eggs and talked about the plan for the day. We would follow a small game trail deeper into the forest. The map showed that we would need a few hours of walking to get to where the herb was said to be. The notes also stated that there may be wolves in the area. We would be on the lookout for that but would hope we could just find the herb and return quickly to the family.

As we walked we looked around for the herbs. It was supposed to be found in between rocks or in the roots of trees. It liked the damp and dark places. At around midday we found the herb nestled between the roots of a large tree. We collected the herb and put it away in one of our packs. We would need a little bit more of the herb before we could head back to the village. What we had found was not enough to feel the quota. We walked around while looking for the herb. It took us another half an hour to find enough to fill the contract. With the herbs safely in our possession we continued walking and came across a small cave. We looked at each other. A subtle nod passed between us which showed that we both wanted to go explore. Before we headed in we made up a torch from a branch that was lying nearby. The camping supplies that we had bought came with the cloth and fuel we needed to make ourselves torches. We hadn’t had any need for them thus far. We would usually stop for the night before it could get dark and set up a campfire. We slowly made our way into the cave. It was bigger on the inside than we had thought. There was a smell in there. Like rotting meat. We walked for a few minutes and made it to the back of the cave. We saw carcasses of animals lying around. Some were just bone while others were nearly fully intact. This must be the cause of the smell. I also assumed this was the home of the wolves we had been hearing about. Among the animal corpses were two human corpses. This gave me a very bad feeling. It was best to leave before they got back. These were man killers and I didn't want to meet the wolves when they came back. Just as the thought entered my head I heard the sound of something making its way towards us through the cave. We heard yipping and huffing sounds. The sound of scraping claws crept closer. We both drew our weapons and prepared for a fight. Three wolves entered the cavern we were in. They saw us immediately. Growls exited the mouths of the wolves. They slowly made their way towards us. We held our ground hoping that the light of the torch would scare them away.

To say it simply they didn’t. The lead wolf lunged at me. I blocked with my sword and hit the wolf with my torch. The smell of burning hair entered my nostrils. The wolf growled at me but backed away. As the leader backed up the other two made their move towards us. One moved towards me the other went for Sora. I blocked it with my torch but the wolf latched onto it and ripped it out of my hand. The torch went spinning away and landed well out of reach. I managed to get a slight cut in while the wolf flung my torch. It yipped and jumped back. Sora fared better than I did. Blocking with her sword and setting the wolf ablaze with her torch. The two wolves on my side made a charge for me. I was without my torch and only had the sword to protect me from both of them. They launched for me. The one got a bite in on my shoulder but I managed to swipe at the other one leaving it pretty wounded. Sora saw them team up on me and ran to help me. She stabbed the one that had a hold of me through the back. The wolf let out a horrible wail. It had gotten a pretty good bite in and we would need to apply some ointment to it to keep it from getting infected. We still had the burnt wolf and the one I had sliced still in the fight. I had no time to worry about my own wound. I went to the one I had slashed and cut at it again. It dodged away and made a move to bite me again. I managed to step back and avoid it. I slashed and slashed but the wolf kept dodging. Sora’s luck was almost as rotten as mine, never able to get in a killing blow. I finally managed to land a good hit on the wolf I was fighting. It slumped to the floor. Not yet dead but out of the fight. It gave me the chance to sneak up on the wolf Sora was fighting and I pierced the wolf through the back. I also fell to the ground. Sora and I walked to each of our wolves and finished them off. I went around to each wolf and cut off their ears. There was an open bounty on man eating wolves. We would turn those into the guild for a reward. Since we were done with our contract there was no need to stick around. I rubbed some ointment in my wound and picked up my dropped torch. With that done we headed back to the village. It was slower going than when we had come in but we made it there just before nightfall. We went to the woman's house and she thanked us profusely. We told her there was no need for thanks, we just wanted the boy to get better. We left her to her own affairs. She could get the alchemist over to her house and make the medicine for her son. We headed out of town and back towards the capital. We stopped after about an hour of walking and set up camp. We decided we both needed our sleep tonight after our fight so we both went to sleep after a quick supper. We both slept well and woke up feeling refreshed. I reapplied the ointment to my wound. It was healing nicely. We ate some oatmeal for breakfast and continued on our way. It took us a few hours to make it back into the Capital. We made it to the gate and showed the guards our adventurer badges and were let into the city without the toll. We walked to the adventurers guild and went inside to turn in our contract. We talked to the receptionist and she paid us our three bronze coins for the contract and also took the ears for five copper apiece. She told us we could come back tomorrow for another contract but that we should rest and celebrate a job well done. With that we headed back to the Inn for a good meal and a bath. Maybe this adventurer thing really could work out for us.