William’s group reached the same pair of statuesque sentries from when they left Everglade. The two figures didn’t make a sound and merely opened a gate through the wall of twisted roots, vines, and branches for them to enter through. It didn’t take long for them to find themselves inside and amidst a busy area of the town. They were about to start their walk towards Serenity when Wylton appeared from a nearby tree trunk and waved them over.
“That’s convenient,” Stacey said, getting a quiet nod from William. They approached the wizened Druid and greeted him.
“I see you’re back. I’m guessing the mission of yours was a success?” Wylton said, and William felt like the guy already knew, otherwise why would he have appeared before them like this?
“It was. I take it you are here for a specific purpose in mind?” William replied, waiting for the man to say his piece.
William wondered if Wylton as the keeper of this grove could mark a Task as finished in Denlar’s place.
“I came to tell you that the people we picked to go and visit your village of Greenwell as trainers have left and are already on their way. I sensed the disappearance of the Wolves Den through the region’s Ley-line and decided to remove any delay in providing the reward for your Task. As well as the source of...your new Title, Stacey.”
Stacey winced slightly at that, but Wylton didn’t seem overly bothered, most likely due to it not affecting Everglade.
William smiled at that, and felt some relief at the news, knowing that with his mother giving the people at Greenwell archery training, all their bases should be covered to protect Greenwell if it was attacked in the future.
“That’s fantastic news!” Stacey said, seeming as relieved as William, letting it show moderately more than his own relief.
William waited for Wylton to say more, and sure enough he did.
“John and Stacey have already completed Milla’s Task and Jane has been incredibly helpful with her healing, fixing the injuries from a...failed experiment.”
William’s eyebrows lifted at that, and even though they had a task to hand in, he found himself asking, “What experiment. The way you make it sound, it’s as if the experiment was something reckless.”
He wouldn’t have been too concerned normally, but William didn’t want his friends to be caught in or killed by some weird nature science shit.
“It was an experiment with new, non native crops. I wanted to try and grow some other plants from another region that don’t naturally grow here and the particular breeds in question didn’t merge well. This caused a convergence of Mana and for lack of a better word, retaliation from the Ley-line as it detected the foreign species. I had hoped that the power of my Grove would at least mitigate the risk, but alas, I was wrong,” Wylton said, showing regret on his face briefly before the neutral and wizened expression returned.
He paused for a second, seeming to gather his thoughts before he continued, “No one died, thankfully, but some injuries occurred. They were all minor, but Jane was kind enough to assist what few Medics we have here in healing the injured.”
William was glad that his sister had kept busy and hoped that she would have gained a few levels in her class for the effort.
He wondered what John had been doing and decided to ask, “With their Task finished and Jane staying busy with healing, what’s John been doing?”
Wylton smiled then and replied, “John’s been helping with another Task. He’s been out hunting local game as our stores were starting to get low. In fact, we even gave Jane the mission to help heal the injured as a Task so they can get closer to full AU membership.”
William was glad for that news. It would only help John’s Archer class and that would be another significant boon to their party.
“Thanks Wylton, I guess we should head to Serendipity and speak with Denlar now,” William said, eager to get the Task complete and maybe picking up another one before heading to the crafters and getting his present to Stacey made.
Wylton held up a hand and replied, “No need to walk that far, just go to the Craftsman’s Quarter. He should be there collecting a commission he had placed recently. With all that said, I have things to take care of. Come find me later in Serendipity if you need me.”
He then disappeared, and presumably appeared elsewhere in the town from another tree.
“That’s convenient,” William said, prompting a confused look from Stacey.
That was a problem as he couldn’t just commission the gift with her presence, yet he knew she would probably need to be there to get her Task completed. He didn’t have a way to confirm that but he could always ask. Stacey poked him in the cheek again clearly noticing his wandering thoughts; something that had been happening more lately.
“What’s convenient?” Stacey asked.
“It’s convenient that we don’t have too far to walk now.”
William stretched his arms and legs then went to continue walking when he caught himself and turned back with a sheepish look to face Stacey as he added, “I don’t remember how to get there.”
Stacey let out a soft chuckle at his revelation and the two of them got the attention of a wandering Elf to get the correct directions. The man was a little bit rude, complaining about being stopped while in thought, but acquiesced and gave the requested directions. When they got to an area with food stalls, William grit his teeth and he made a silent vow to get his revenge on the Elf if he saw the man again. Nothing violent as that would be unnecessary. Petty vengeance would be as satisfying though. They decided to buy some breaded meat from one of the stalls for two coppers and got what William hoped were the correct directions. Ten minutes later, the pair were at the Craftsman’s Quarter and had enjoyed their snack. William had found the texture a bit stringy, but it was seasoned with spices that he hadn’t ever experienced before, making the food some of the nicest he could remember eating. It wasn’t long after that when they saw Denlar emerge from one of the cabins, putting what William guessed was a jewelry item and its box into his pocket.
Denlar stopped when he spotted their approach and smiled, seeming even happier. William considered the man as they approached. He was a middle aged human with a neatly trimmed and full beard, with his long hair tied up in a warrior’s braid. The man was muscular and William estimated him to be a couple inches shorter than himself. He donned a Leather Armor set and had a pair of bearded hand axes at his waist. It was like he was some Viking lumberjack or something of the like.
“I see you two didn’t dally on your way back. That’s good. I’ll sign off your tasks now,” Denlar said, impressing William by getting straight to the topic at hand.
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Before William could reply, the expected prompt appeared. William took a moment to read it.
{Ascension_Protocol}
{Taskmaster Quest}
Task 1 – Clear local Wolf Den to protect travelers moving to and from Everglade.
[[Complete]]
Reward – Allocation of trainers to Greenwell to educate residents on melee combat.
{End}
“Thanks Denlar, got anything else for us?” Stacey said, saving William the effort of having to ask.
He couldn’t get over how much he appreciated the woman by his side. Before he got too focused on all the amazing things about her, Denlar’s reply drew his attention back.
“A couple small things, but not overly difficult. I can probably give you one each. Pretty much just killing some pests near our crops in the Agriculture section. It gets you closer to your AU membership and gets an annoyance out of my security detail’s hair. I can’t express how annoying it is when our farmers come to us with their complaints daily. This will at least give us a little bit of a reprieve.”
William was able to hide a laugh at the man’s eagerness to shirk the farmer’s aggro onto them, not that William minded. Killing some critters with his daggers, speed, and swords wouldn’t be too hard and would give him a somewhat decent workout before dinner.
He watched Stacey after that, curious at how she would respond. Would it be wise to task a fire based Mage with something that involved agriculture?
Stacey seemed to read his mind as she said, “Can I use my fire magic?”
She had said it with a sweetly tone, clearly trying to downplay the power of her attacks. When Denlar replied, both William and Stacey were taken back slightly.
“Sure. Your task Stacey, is to burn the warrens and burrow holes that the pests make, but ONLY those. No fire is to be used on anything else and it must be controlled. NO BIG SPELLS. William, you’ll kill the pests that emerge before and after Stacey’s work. I have offered Armor rewards for your Task Stacey. William, your Task’s reward is the weapon equivalent. Each quest reward will aid Greenwell suitably.”
Both of them nodded and William felt a new prompt appear. He opened it with curiosity.
Ascension_Protocol}
{Taskmaster Quest}
Task 1 – Clear pests from Everglade’s Agriculture section.
Reward – Cache of high quality Ranged and Melee weaponry
{End}
“Straightforward enough for my liking,” William said, with a smile.
Denlar nodded, and clapped his hands, replying, “I need to go now. I’ll be at Serendipity later with the other councilors.”
William turned to Stacey as Denlar left and said, “I want to have a little look around and see if there’s anything of interest here. Have a look around yourself and see if anything takes your fancy. I can buy you something you want if it stands out or takes your fancy.”
“Oooh if you insist,” Stacey replied, hurrying over to the same cabin that Denlar had emerged from.
It seemed that she had also noticed what the guy had bought. William headed to the cabin a few doors down with tanned hides on racks outside the entrance. He guessed that this place would be suitable for his purposes.
He entered and caught sight of a lady with a well fed physique tanning some hide on yet another rack. A musk hung over the room, complemented by the smell of oils that seemed to be used as a lacquer of sorts. The woman wore plain cotton clothing but had a large and brown leather apron. She hadn’t noticed him enter, so William cleared his throat to get her attention.
She turned and an initial glare formed into a sickly smile.
“Oh ‘ello lovely, what can I do ya for?” The woman said, putting her tools down and turning to face him.
William caught the glimpse of her wiping her hands on the side of her apron. He appreciated the effort in looking decent for her customers as well as her straightforwardness.
“I have some fur hide that I skinned from an Aether-fur Direwolf yesterday and want it made into a coat, with the protective properties the beast itself exhibits when infused with some Mana. Is that something you can do?” William asked, hoping that the woman could do the job.
William was eager to see the look on Stacey’s face when she received it.
“Oh somethin’ like that’ll set ya back ‘bout fifty gold. It’s cheaper ‘cos you have the raw materials. I’ll even speed up the process for ya. Available to collect on the next day. What size do you want. I only need the height as the coat won’t be flexible enough to taper the waist much. We ‘ave a deal yeah?” The woman said, eyes glimmering at the thought of gold.
William had to respect a merchant staying true to their nature and was happy enough to agree.
With the deal accepted in mind he spoke up, “The person it’s for is about five foot ten inches, and her arms are about three quarters of mine in span.”
William did a T pose in demonstration before he continued, “And yes. We have a deal.”
The woman beamed and sped over to him gleefully shaking his hand. With the free hand William had, he summoned the large fur hide, placing it on the nearby table. He watched the woman’s eyes bulge.
“Change of deal. There’s more than I expected so I’ll do the coat for twenty gold if I can keep the leftover bits. Deal?” the lady said, eyes moving between the hide and William himself.
William nodded with a smile and handed the twenty gold over to the lady. She pocketed the gold in her apron pocket then hefted the fur into a backroom, where William assumed the magic happened. She stuck her head back out of the room waving goodbye to William as he left. She was a rather energetic woman.
William saw Stacey wave him over to her. “Speaking of energetic women.” William thought, smiling both internally and externally as he reached Stacey.
“Let’s see what’s took your eye then,” William said, kissing her on her fore head and taking her hand in his.
A genial elderly man was sat behind a table in a cabin that smelt of old people. Stacey then pointed him to a bangle that had three wolf heads engraved on it, each bigger than the last, forming a pattern that covered the face of the bangle. It was pretty, he had to admit as the mirror polish made it pop in the candle light shining from the window sill. He picked it up curiously, noticing the old man’s eyes narrow almost imperceptibly, clearly getting ready in case William decided to dash.
“How much?” William simply stated, slightly annoyed at the old man’s suspicion of him.
“Thirty silver.”
“Done.”
William handed the man his money and put the bangle on Stacey’s wrist, enjoying her gleeful expression. She wrapped her arm around his and the two left with Stacey giving the old codger a goodbye wave. William glanced to the arm around his and had to admit that the bangle looked very good on her.
“Why the wolves?” William asked, curiosity taking over.
“To commemorate our first adventure together.”
They both felt mental tugs from their bonds that still rested on their shoulders indicating that they wanted to be included.
Stacey chuckled, then added, “Fine, our first adventure with our little family.”
The two bonds bobbed their heads happily, prompting laughs as they made their way towards the Agriculture section. The group walked for several minutes before stopping in confusion. Stacey voiced their plight.
“We might need to get directions.”