Chapter 6 - Billy Provides
Billy shifted foot to foot as he waited for Tim to finish haggling with the enchanter. He had sold the teeth and the claws for five silver, which was way more than the boy had thought they would go for. Apparently, dire wolf teeth were more in demand than regular wolf teeth. Tim eventually agreed to pay the enchanter the five silver and provide the monster core to enchant a shield for Billy. He also struck a deal to have the dire wolf pelt processed, divided and made into a blanket for himself. He paid the enchanter with a portion of the pelt, which both parties seemed to think was fair.
Billy watched with rapt attention as the enchanter laid out the round shield and the various implements that they needed to enchant it. The enchanter methodically carved rune after rune all across the wood of the shield, taking care not to overlap any runes. After about two hours of rune carving, they carefully fitted the monster core into the center of the shield and channeled mana into it. The mana flowed from the core into the runes making the entire shield glow the same shiny gray as the monster core. They cast one last spell on the shield. The light grew brighter, then dimmed until it was barely perceptible.
The enchanter then took the shield over to an anvil. They placed it onto the anvil and swung a smith’s hammer heavily onto the shield. The loud clang that Billy was expecting never came. Instead, a low hum reverberated and the shield’s runes flared gray for an instant before dimming again.
Satisfied, the enchanter brought the shield over to Billy and handed it to him. “All done. That should stop anything as strong as a dire wolf, at least. Stronger than that, and I’d probably run.”
Billy nodded gratefully and strapped his new shield to his arm. What had once been not much more than a wooden framework was now a glorious, enchanted shield. It even looked like he could use it as a weapon, seeing how sharp the sides were. He reasoned that a normal shield probably couldn’t stay that thin without bending or breaking, but an enchanted one certainly could.
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His smile split his face as he showed off his shield to Farmer Tim. “Now then,” the farmer exclaimed, slapping his hands against his pants. “I’ve got some coin to spend and some women to spend it on. Go see the Adventurer’s Guild and see if there are any good contracts.”
Billy rolled his eyes at the old perv, but listened to him nonetheless. When he arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild’s notice board, he looked over the F-ranked missions once again. This time, he paid particular attention to the more combat-oriented ones. As he was searching, however, an idea struck him. He grabbed a few contracts from the board and made his way over to the reception desk, where Tilly sat scowling at a stack of papers.
"You here to turn in your contract?" Tilly snapped, not looking up from her papers.
Billy cleared his throat nervously. "Uh, yeah. But I was also wondering if it's possible to take on more than one guild mission at once."
Tilly glared at him. “We’ve been over this. No more than two requests at a time. Not until you get promoted to E-rank.”
Billy shifted on his feet. "Right. Ok. Then, I would like to turn in my last contract and accept two of these." He layed out two of the contracts that he had taken from the board. Both were magical herb gathering quests, neither of which were overly dangerous, but they indicated that they were usually time consuming and they could be completed multiple times.
As Tilly replied with a grunt of acknowledgement, Billy placed his hand on the Tome of Knowledge. It flashed slightly, signaling the clerk to hand over three copper coins, which Billy pocketed excitedly. Then, he accepted the two gathering contracts and set off to the market to gather his supplies.