Astrid walked through the streets of Largon. Classes had ended just around lunchtime, and the temperature was rapidly climbing. She was glad school had been in the morning, as doing physical training now would have been unbearable in the afternoon heat. Her room at the inn would be like an oven until evening came, so she had no plans to return there any time soon. Instead, she was heading towards the job hall, hoping to find some quests to do.

After entering a deserted alley, she pulled out her cloak and shifted into her adult persona unnoticed, then fastened the dagger to her rope belt. However, she didn’t want to put on the amulet before she was out of the city.

Changing in the alley reminded her of something Sham had said yesterday. Had it really not been longer since she last spoke to him? It felt like an eternity ago. He had mentioned that he had people spying on her.

Astrid cast worried glances in every direction but didn’t see anything suspicious. As far as she could tell, she was alone. On her way to the job hall, she kept up her search for the spy, but either Sham had lied about it, or the spy was really good at their job. Still, just the thought that someone was watching her every move was uncomfortable.

Arriving at the job hall, she noticed how empty it was. Apparently, the quest board wasn’t the only one that was low on available jobs. Everything else was empty as well. The only person there was the job hall manager.

“Hi Lennard, Are there any new quests today?” Astrid asked, approaching his desk.

“A few came in earlier today. You can go ahead and take them from the board if you want them.”

“I’ll take them,” Astrid said before heading to the noticeboard in the back of the room. Two new quests had been posted since the last time she checked the board. She snatched both without reading them and went to check them out.

*

At the city gate, hundreds of people stood in line waiting to enter. Astrid had seen this before and knew it could only mean one thing. Another village in the area had fallen to the monsters, and every survivor was seeking refuge here. Largon was running out of places for the refugees to stay. All inns were at full capacity, most apartments were rented out, and few houses were for sale at the moment. Astrid had checked the housing market a few times just to get an idea of how much money she would need to move out of the inn, but each time she checked the price had gone up.

Most of these refugees would likely join those already living on the streets. It was sad, but there was nothing Astrid could do to help them, so she ignored the people in line and made her way to the forest. Just before entering, she took the time to read through the quests she had taken.

New quest from the apothecary

The apothecary needs sage root

Objective: gather sage root 0 of 10

Reward: 50 small copper

Time: 23 h 45 m

New quest from the dye house

Water moss needed at the location

Objective: gather Water moss 0 of 20

Reward: 20 small copper

Time: 23 h 45 m

With dismay, she noticed that the rewards for completing these quests were significantly less than she had gotten used to. It made sense, as since the notice boards were empty, people no longer tried to compete by outpricing each other. This was likely what the reward used to be before the monsters made it dangerous to enter the forest. Still, it was a large blow to her major source of income.

Then she remembered something else Sham had said. Since she was the only one taking this quest, she could basically demand whatever she wanted. People would either have to pay the price or go without the plants. It was unlikely anyone else would go out to gather, so she held a lot of power in this situation.

She quickly discarded those thoughts again. Back when Sham had suggested this, she had decided she wouldn’t take advantage of desperate people.

While doing her quest, she had often gotten to talk to business owners from many different industries, and they all had similar complaints. Overland trade had been nonexistent for a few years because of the monsters, and the only things arriving by boat were marked-up luxury goods. Getting common plants shipped from other places of Otimra just wasn’t worth the expense.

Other people’s livelihoods were dependent on getting resources to make products. Lots of businesses had just rehired those they had had to lay off when they couldn’t get raw materials. Astrid refused to be the reason others lost their jobs again. That meant she would have to keep doing as many quests as she could, no matter how low the reward got. Now she got the chance to prove that she would stand by her own morals.

With a sigh, she turned her attention back to the things she had to gather. She already had the Water moss as it was a plant she often went to get and therefore had stocked up upon. Her bag had magic that kept the plants fresh for months, so she had no worries that they would lose their value. That left Sage root. She had never harvested it before, but she had seen it multiple times on her previous trips, so she knew exactly where to find it. After putting on her amulet and making herself invisible, she headed off to the nearest plant.

As she harvested it, she gained a few points in her plant care skill for the first time in weeks. It was closing in on level two, but as she rarely found any challenge in harvesting plants, it had stagnated. It was only because this was a new plant that she had gained experience.

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It could be tempting to go harvest all sorts of plants in order to build the skill, but the goddess of nature hated such waste. Her parents had drilled into her head that if you had no intention of using the things you took from nature, it was best to leave it where it was. The goddess of nature was not someone you wanted to get on the bad side of. Astrid was also always careful not to overharvest in any particular area the way the Water moss near the city had been.

It was still early in the afternoon, and Astrid didn’t want to return to the overcrowded city yet, but she also couldn’t justify harvesting more plants. Instead, she ended up just walking around, although she was careful not to enter any place that could potentially be a dungeon. She was never going to enter one of those again.

Even though she had slayed a few monsters almost every day since she lost her home, the population had increased. If it went on for much longer, the forest would end up as crowded as the tunnels inside the dungeon. Then it would be too dangerous to go out even for her. Maybe it was time for a more active approach to her monster slaying.

Up until now, she had only fought monsters when absolutely necessary. Other than that, she had avoided them.

She hated fighting monsters but simultaneously felt a duty to do so. After all, she was one of the few people in the area who had the skills to do it. She also felt like she had to atone for her crimes of being a follower of deception. If she did enough good deeds, maybe others would forgive her for her allegiance to that evil god and all the lying she had done.

With her mind made up, all there was left to do now was find a monster she could slay with minimal risk to herself. Soon she came across a monster she hadn’t seen before, though her ability identified it as a toxic slug in level one. It was purple in color and about as long as she was tall. That meant somewhere between five and six feet. Exact measurement tools were expensive and only used in industries where precision was key. If they weren’t absolutely needed, they weren’t invested in.

The slug left a slimy trail behind it that made the ground smoke. She carefully avoided stepping in it as she snuck up on the monster. Then she embedded the dagger in its body. Poison sprayed from the wound, flying in direction and covering most of Astrid in the foul liquid. She staggered backward out of the spray, shocked at what had just happened. The poison burned where it hit her skin but nowhere near as much as she would have expected it to. It was more irritating than actually painful.

Her cloak had protected most of her body and other clothes and didn’t seem to be damaged by the poison. That left only her face and her hands affected.

After ensuring the slug was dead and no other monsters were rushing towards her, she checked her messages to see what was going on.

You have been covered in toxic slug blood. It has seeped into your skin and poisoned you. The effect will last for another hour or until the poison is cleared with healing.

Ability has taken effect. Since you are level one in poison you will only suffer minimal affect from poison and venom in levels equal to your own. You have immunity to lower-level poison and venom and the effects are reduced for those of higher levels although the reduction smaller the greater the difference between you and the substance is.

Astrid checked her stats just in time to see the second health point being spent. Apparently minimal effect would still be dangerous if left untreated, but her situation could have been a lot worse without her poison resistance. She grabbed an antidote from her first aid kit and drank it. The bitter taste it left in the mouth was more irritating than the poison itself, but it did its job. In just a few moments, she was completely cured.

She looted the monster despite the risk of being doused with toxic slug blood again.

New items received

Vial of toxic slug blood

lv 1

Received from looting a monster

Poisons anyone who comes in contact with the substance

Astrid reluctantly left the item in her inventory. It wasn’t an item she could sell to anyone, but neither could she just leave it here as it posed a danger to anyone exposed to the liquid. She would just have to keep it for now.

*

By the time she headed back to the city, she had lost count of how many monsters she had slain. Her knife-fighting skill and her monster-slaying skill ran into the same problem her plant care skill had earlier. The same was true for her stealth skill, which had also stagnated. All of them needed greater challenges in order to progress in any meaningful way.

Still, her bag was now full of new loot, and most of it could be sold. Hopefully it would be enough to make up for the lower reward for doing quests offered.

After delivering plants from the gathering quest, she went back to the inn. As she entered her room, she froze at the door. Someone was standing in there with his back to her, looking out the window. He turned to face her, and she realized it was the god of Deception.

What does he want now? She thought in a mixture of annoyance and apprehension as she walked closer and shoved her backpack under the bed.

“I was informed that you returned rather late yesterday and that you were hurt.” Sham said. “What happened?”

“Nothing.” If the god of deception didn’t know what she had been through, she didn’t want to tell him.

“You’re lying to me. I don’t know whether to be angry or proud.”

Astrid didn’t want him to be either, so she changed the topic.

"Well, as you can see, I’m fine. I have to study now, and I’m sure you have better things to do than hang out in my room. She had hoped he would take the hint and leave, but apparently, he had other plans.

“How is the reading in my book coming along?”

Astrid was getting about at Shams constantly pushing her to read that dreadful book. She had already mentioned multiple times that she didn’t want to learn the things he had to teach, but he didn’t seem to care. She didn’t know how much longer she could push her luck on the matter. He usually tolerates some attitude and backtalk, but she was still in the process of figuring out just how far she could push it. After all, he could go from kind to murderous in less than a second, as she had learned during their first meeting. Besides, as much as she loathed to admit it, the skills he made her unlock had their uses on occasion. Not that she would ever let him know that.

“I’m still planning on reading your book, so don’t worry.”

“You sure are taking your time.”

“We talked about this yesterday. Don’t you have other followers to bother.”

“No one as interesting as you at the moment.” Astrid didn’t like that. Her hope that Sham would grow tired of her and forget her existence was dwindling every day.

“Was there something you wanted with this meeting? If not, I really do have to study now.”

“In my book I hope.”

She had not planned to read his book tonight but didn’t dare say that to his face. It was hard to motivate herself to read the book as all she would gain from it was progression buffs to a bunch of skills she didn’t want in the first place and a large copper. It didn’t seem worth it to her. Sure, a large copper was a lot of money for most people, but she could make that amount in a few days depending on how many quests she could get her hands on in the job hall. She told the god that much.

“When did you become such a spoiled brat?” He said slightly annoyed. “A large copper is what most girls your make in a hundred days.”

“Then you can’t really complain if it takes me a hundred days to read the book.”

Sham gave her a look that made her want to sink into the ground and disappear.

“Not acceptable. What do you want instead?”

Astrid hadn’t actually thought about it, but there were so many things she wanted, though most were quite pricy or would seem silly to the god, and therefore she didn’t dare ask for them.

“What are you offering?” She asked instead.

Sham didn’t respond, but a moment later she received a new message.

Quest update

Read the Devine Book of Deception

Reward: a divine quarterstaff

Time left: 72 h

Astrid read it a few times, not believing what she was seeing.

“Is this for real?” she asked.

“Yes. This staff can be yours if you finish the book within the next three days. But if you don’t, you’ll get nothing, and I’ll make sure you regret it.