“Onk, what brings you here?” He called out cheerfully, giving them a wave which they returned in kind, though giving off an apologetic feeling as they did, even without a face to show it.
“Hello Ben, I’m sorry to bother you like this while you’re working, but there’s a bit of an issue and I need you to come to the guild with me.”
He immediately felt himself tense up as Falk stood to the side, looking curious as well. “Why, what’s going on?”
“There’s been a call for an emergency quest, as a rank four adventurer you’ll need to participate so you need to be briefed on what’s happening.”
He felt himself deflate as his teacher chuckled. He knew this was possible ever since he first ranked up, but had all but dismissed it from his mind. To be called for it now was nothing but a pain.
“Poor luck boy, if you’re being briefed then that means you’ll need a couple weeks to do it instead of handling it immediately, looks like I’ll get a bit of peace and quiet.”
“Actually Falk, Ceselee was adamant about making sure you showed up as well,” They said, continuing their apologetic tone.
“What? I haven’t been an active adventurer for well over a decade, why am I being dragged into this when I have a business to run?”
“Ah, she told me to tell you, and please bear in mind that these are her words, that ‘if you have some sort of problem with it you should have made sure to officially quit before it became an issue.’”
As his teacher grumbled Ben gave him a wide grin. “Looks like you get to enjoy my company for a couple weeks then.”
----------------------------------------
They were led to a back room of the guild and found Thera already seated and waiting, positively vibrating with excitement as she looked at them while taking seats of their own.
“Can you believe it?” She asked as she grabbed Ben’s arm. “Not only do we get to do an emergency quest, but it’s one with a rank limit of four! What do you think we’ll have to do?”
“Probably something that people without combat skills like me should stay far away from,” He told her dryly.
“Oh don’t be like that, don’t you have three combat skills now?”
“At level zero! And I’m pretty positive marksmanship does nothing but improve my aim a little!”
It had been exciting when he got it, but the only change was that he was a bit better at hitting targets and his eyesight had improved slightly, nothing major. He was still no good with his gun, it had just become a little easier to use effectively.
“You’ll be fine. Depending on what the quest is, they might actually want you here for your skills as a craftsman anyway. Being able to properly maintain and repair weapons is pretty important after all, and worst to worst I’ll protect you,” She told him, giving him a friendly nudge. “Actually, I’m more surprised to see you here uncle?”
“I’m just here to suffer for not bothering to properly quit once I decided to move on to permanently focusing on my smithing, and I doubt Ceselee will put up with me giving my resignation now. I’ll just suck it up and help out a little.”
“Speaking of actually, Sanya didn’t come with you?” Ben asked her. “Weren’t you both at the clinic today?”
One of the few things he knew about Falk’s past was the fact that he used to adventure with both Sonya and Pelenia. With the one there he would have expected to see the other as well, though Thera was quick to correct him of that assumption.
“Aunty made sure to properly resign when she switched to clinic work so they couldn’t ask her to come. It’s a shame though, it would have been fun to have her join us.”
“Why does it seem like you’re treating this like it’s going to be a trip?”
“I mean, at least for there and back it will be, since we don’t know what we’re dealing with at our destination it’s a little harder to say.”
“Love the optimism. Anyway, how many more people do you think will arrive?” He asked as he looked around. Other than them there was a group of three he recognised, namely Sachel and her party, as well as another three he’d seen around but never spoken to, all appearing to be a hybrid species of cyclops and some sort of bird people, with one large jewel-like eye and beautiful red feathers. If it wasn’t for the taboo around using materials from sentient races he would have asked about buying some for their look alone but assumed that even without the ethical concerns they might not want to be approached about such things.
He was sure there’d be more coming, but Thera surprised him with her answer. “This might be everyone, maybe a couple more since they haven’t started yet.”
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“What? How are there so few? There’s always plenty of people in the guild when we come for our quests?”
“The majority of people get stuck at rank five. One of the reasons we’ve both been able to rank up to four so easily is probably because we both have demons recorded on our cards, it shows a certain level of competence, even if we aren’t full-time adventurers like the others here,” She explained. “Rank three is even harder to get, I’m pretty sure the only person in town at that rank would be the guild master, though we’ll be well on our way to getting there depending on what the quest is and how much we contribute.”
“Huh, I would have thought the guild master would be ranked a lot higher than that honestly.”
“It’s how the rankings work, from seven to three it's all about accomplishment, but for rank two you need to have at least one awakened skill, and at rank one, you either need multiple or else an awakened skill at level five.”
“Not awakened a second time?” He asked curiously.
“Anyone whose done that isn’t moved by nations, they can move nations,” She explained. “I’m not sure how many of them there currently are since supposedly some people don’t publicly admit to it, but there should be less than ten who’ve managed it in the world, they’d have no reason to work for the guild.”
“Huh neat, in that case, if I awaken my crafting would I be forced into becoming a rank two adventurer? Like, it’s not a combat skill, wouldn’t it just be cruel to force me to deal with rank two quests?”
“I’m… not sure actually,” She said after a moment's thought. “That’s probably a question for the guild staff.”
“Okay then, and Falk what rank are you?” He asked his teacher, not hiding any of the curiosity in his eyes.
“Rank four.”
“Why does that feel like a lie?”
“Because you’re too distrusting.”
He was going to push the question more but Ceselee walked in, along with a group of four he hadn’t seen before that took the last table. He felt something in Thera’s demeanour change but decided to save questioning it for after.
Once there, she started handing out a small booklet for everyone as she greeted them which Ben immediately began reading through, before getting to the heart of why they were all called for.
“Alright, sorry to grab you all on such short notice but we’ve been requested to assist with an emergency quest. The aquatic races are dealing with the movement of the leviathans as they’re changing their migration route, and if they and the prophecies of the banshee are to be believed, there’s going to be widespread death and destruction if not dealt with. Now Ben,” She said, calling him out in particular. “Since this is pretty important do you think you could pay attention? The book’s to read through when this is done.”
“Don’t worry, I have so many mind skills even if it doesn’t look like I’m listening I’m probably paying more attention than anyone else in the room, but while I have you, here’s a question. The book says leviathan breath fire?”
“That’s right.”
“Okay, why do they breathe fire? They’re freaking sea monsters!”
“Mostly sea monsters, but part of their migration brings them onto land. This wasn’t an issue when it was in the untamed lands, but a group’s gone far off course. Unless something changes they’ll be dangerously close to some populated areas so they need to be dealt with before anything happens. Unfortunately, given the unreliable nature of mortal prophecy and the whims of wildlife we can’t be sure when they’ll arrive so we’ll leave tomorrow. It should take ten days to get there so make sure you’re all ready to leave bright and early in the morning, for all we know we might need to fight as soon as we get there.”
“If we need to get there as quick as we can then I can get us there faster,” Thera called out excitedly, drawing all eyes to her and making Ben's stomach sink.
“I won’t object if that really is the case, but how will you manage that? I can’t give full approval without more information.”
“I have a cart I can move with my earth magic. Last time me and Ben came back from the gate it only took two days and I’m sure I can cut that down so long as the roads aren’t too busy.”
Ceselee cast her eyes to Ben, looking for confirmation which he gave despite his misgivings. “She can, though for everyone's safety I really don’t recommend she go any faster than what she’s already done. I’ll probably also have to modify the cart to make it more suitable for carrying more passengers since it wasn’t originally set up to deal with large groups. Also, it won’t be able to deal with being off-road so if that’s an issue then it won’t work.”
“Our destination is a seaside town so we won’t be going off-road until we get there so it should be fine. In that case, if we can cut our travel time down from ten days to four then it’s approved, so long as you get us there we’ll add the money that would have been spent on the cart to your reward Thera.”
With how she was cloaked nobody but Ben and Falk could tell, but she was silently cheering the result. Since time was of the essence any that could be saved was valuable and by helping out like that she’d already ensured her contribution to the quest, any achievement she had after that would only help her on her way to eventually becoming a rank three adventurer.
“Then instead of leaving tomorrow morning could we delay till the next day?” Asked one of the party Ceselee led in, a being that looked like a skeleton wrapped in a layer of clear slime, towering above the rest of them at almost three meters. “It would give us more time to arrange things and prepare.”
“Alright,” Ceselee agreed after a moment's thought. “That would still have us getting there five days in advance of when they expect us, if the prophecy is that far off then there’s not much we’ll be able to do anyway. We'll meet here the following morning, I’ll explain a bit more on the way then so for now let's split into two groups and then you can read through the booklets provided in your own time.”
He saw Sachel look at them and wave, clearly indicating a desire for their groups to join together, but Ceselee crushed those dreams before any words were spoken between them.
“If any of you have the adventurer job, raise your hand now.”
Of the thirteen in the room, two of them raised their hands, one of the half cyclops, as well as the skeleton slime who’d spoken up before.
“Alright, this works out great. Omp, your team will be working with Sachel’s party while Zite and the rest of you will work with Thera and Ben. Falk, you’re with me. Make sure to invite them properly so everyone can gain some experience from this and then you can all go off to do whatever you need to. Be back here in two days and don’t be late.”