Quentin arrived late in the morning, as he promised. Hans had pulled all of the shelves out of the guild storage room for a deep clean and was grateful for a break.

In his travels, Hans had met the children of hunters before. If one of the parents wasn’t in the picture, the children of hunters ended up largely raising themselves. Hunting trips can last for several days, and when hunters returned home, it was never for long. The pay for furs, skins, and venison was respectable, but a payday somehow never goes far enough when there are kids to clothe and feed.

Though Quentin was relatively quiet about his homelife, Hans noted he would mention his father but never his mother. With a few thousand kids’ classes under his belt, Hans had learned long ago to never assume anything about a child’s homelife. On too many occasions he made the mistake of assuming the adult accompanying a child was a mother or father only to learn that their child’s parents were long gone. Forcing an aunt or an uncle to politely explain to you that the giggly child in the corner swinging a wooden sword had endured horrific heartbreak.

Hans didn’t know where Quentin’s mother might be. Whether or not he ever told Hans about her was entirely up to Quentin and entirely on his timeline.

Gomi’s blacksmith had a humble shop on the opposite edge of town, sharing a wall with the town fletcher. The forge, bellows, and anvil sat under an open-air pavilion. A lean but muscular man with a soot-covered leather apron hammered at a horseshoe, the bounce-back of the anvil putting an extra echo to every ping and tink. The bandana wrapped around his head was soaked with sweat, his long blond hair sticking to his forehead and neck.

With his back to the street and the deafening noise of his work, the smith didn’t notice his visitors for several seconds. He startled for a moment and smiled when he recognized Quentin.

“Good morning, Quentin,” the smith said. “And you must be Hans. I’ve heard a lot about you, Guild Master.”

“That’s always frightening to hear.”

“Perhaps in some cases. Harry and Harriet adored your classes. We used to have to beg them to practice, but now we have to make sure we hide all of the weapons to get them to bed at night.”

“You know Harry and–” The connection came to Hans. Two blond children, a blond adult smith–it wasn’t definitive science, of course, but it was a big hint that they may be related. Mercifully, the smith clarified for him.

“My wonderful children. Perfect kids. Never give me any trouble at all.” The smith held the strained, forced smile of a tired parent.

Hans shook the smith’s hand. He seemed to hesitate at first, on account of the grit on his hands, but the Guild Master gave him a nonchalant shrug to show he didn’t care about some dirt.

“What brings you by my shop?”

“The chapter needs your skills. I’ve got an idea of what I want, but two questions for you first. One: Do you accept guild credit?”

The smith nodded.

“Excellent. Would it be a problem to combine the chapter’s credit with my own in an order? We might order more than we have budget for, and I’m fine covering the difference.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. Whatcha need?”

Hans rattled off his list: 10 wooden training swords, 5 wooden bucklers, and 5 wooden targes–also a type of round shield but larger than a buckler. Hans also mentioned he was in need of 5 training bows with a healthy supply of arrows with blunted tips, but he knew he’d have to go next door to put that order in.

“No need to put two orders in,” the smith said. “The Mrs. does the fletching. We can make it one order instead of two to simplify things.”

“That works for me.”

“Anything else on your list?”

“Quentin,” Hans said, addressing his pupil. “What weapon would you like to learn next?”

“I get to pick?”

“Yep.”

Quentin took a moment to think. “What do you think would be best for me to learn?”

“Oh no you don’t. You’re not passing this one back to me. Don’t worry about what’s ‘best’ right now. What interests you?”

“Spear,” Quentin replied without hesitation.

Hans smiled. “Can we add two wooden spears to our order?”

“Certainly. Tell me, is a targes your shield of choice?”

“You mean like personally?”

The smith nodded.

“It is, actually. But I prefer mine to be on the larger side. Your standard targes will be fine for the kids.”

“Understood. Give me a week at most. I’ll let you know if we’re done sooner.”

Hans said that sounded great.

“It was great to meet you, Guild Master. Now, I have to kindly ask you to leave. Harry and Harriet are helping next door. If they see you’re here they won’t get any of their chores done.”

Quest Completed: Meet the local blacksmith.

Quest Update: Pick up training equipment from the smith when it is completed.

As Hans and Quentin walked back toward the guild hall, the boy softly posed a question, “Why?”

“Why what?” Hans asked in reply.

“Why ask me to pick what I learn next?”

“Why not?”

“...Because you’re the teacher?”

“Don’t worry. You’ll still learn the fundamentals with everyone else. Adventuring is a long road, though, and it’s easy to burnout training as hard as you do. Learning the spear is still a very practical thing, but I’m more interested in it being fun for you to learn it.”

“Fun?”

“Yeah, you know, laughs and smiles and fuzzy feelings.”

“I know what fun is.”

“Just making sure.” Hans flashed a cheesy grin. “A little bit of fun makes that long road much easier. Besides, you haven’t picked a class yet, right? Trying new things will help with that too.”

“What class should I take?”

The pair passed two town guards walking the opposite direction. The familiar guard of the two, Terry, locked hard eyes with Hans before ignoring him completely.

Hans did a mental eyeroll and returned his attention to Quentin. “I won’t share an opinion until you at least have a general idea of the direction you want to take. I don’t have to live with it. You do. It should be a choice you make for yourself, ultimately.”

“I don’t want to be a Druid.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t think I’d like living the way Becky does.”

“The Bronze-ranked Becky? Maybe hold your judgment on druids. I haven’t met Becky yet, but I’m getting the impression she isn’t like the other druids I’ve met. Oh, hey,” Hans said, putting a hand on Quentin’s shoulder to stop him. “Do you mind if I pop in to see Olza real quick? You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“I don’t mind.”

“Great!”

They found Olza at the back of her shop, pondering four graduated cylinders filled with varying shades of purple liquid. She stared at the liquids with her lips pursed and eyes narrowed, sometimes glancing down at her notes. She looked up when Hans and Quentin walked between her shelves.

“Haven’t heard from Becky yet,” she said as they approached.

“I actually came to place an order,” Hans said, fishing a scrap of paper out of his pocket.

Olza reviewed the list. “I have most of this in stock right now. Cure petrification is simple enough, but cure curse will be a few days. That recipe has a few steps that require the ingredients to rest before the next stage.”

“Works for me. Guild credit is okay, right?”

“Yep. I’ll pack these up now.”

While Hans filled out a writ of guild credit, Olza walked along her shelves with a small box of straw, sliding vials and bottles into the makeshift cushion. She returned to the counter and did a final count of the box. “6 healing potions, 6 potions of cure poison, and 6 potions of cure disease. I’ll bring the others by when they are complete.”

She slid the box to Hans at the same time she collected the writ. She glanced at it and held up her hand.

“Wait,” she said. “This is from your personal guild credit, not the chapter’s.”

“I know.”

“Oh. You’re buying these yourself? Okay. No problem for me. Wanted to be sure.”

Quest Update: Wait for Olza to deliver the rest of the potion order.

When Hans turned to leave, Olza stopped him. “Actually, could I get your opinion on something?” she asked.

“I have a lot of those.”

Olza rolled her eyes and stepped into the back of her shop. She emerged with a dried flower blossom between her fingers. The petal shapes were akin to a lotus flower, and though the flower was dried, the petals retained a deep purple. “Do you recognize this? Feel free to jump in if you know it also, Quentin.”

Hans accepted the flower from Olza and looked it over while Quentin blushed. He gently rubbed a petal between his fingers. He sniffed the blossom as well as the base. He held the flower up to a window to see how light passed through it. “Where did you find it?” he asked.

“Becky brought it in shortly after the first thaw. She found it up the mountain a little ways.”

“But didn’t tell you where?”

“She did… in her way. The first step of her directions was to take the north road out of town. The second step was to head northeast at the ‘oak tree with the tired bark.’”

“Tired bark?”

Olza shrugged. “Must be a Druid thing?”

“Hmm…” Hans said, continuing to twist and turn the flower to look at it from all angles. “I’m not well-versed in what ingredients look like when they’re dried. It kind of reminds me of nightshade, but these leaves aren’t right, and neither are the petals. Did you try asking the guild alchemist to identify it for you?”

With an unenthused stare, Olza said, “Thank you for that suggestion. You keep that sample if you want. Maybe inspiration will strike.”

“I’ll let you know if I think of anything.”

New Quest: Identify the unknown purple flower from Olza.

“Are you going on a hunt soon?” Quentin asked as they stepped back onto the main street of Gomi. Hans had the box of potions tucked under his arm.

Hans shook his head. “Having a stash of potions in the guild hall is good for emergencies. Adventurers have a way of stumbling in after a tough fight and bleeding all over your clean floors.”

“...And they might die?”

“That too.”

Without prompting, Quentin followed Hans into the training yard and helped him carry the now clean shelves back inside. The pair worked quietly until the third and last shelf slotted into place.

Quest Complete: Clean the guild hall.

New Quest: Keep the guild hall clean.

As Hans stood in the guild hall, admiring the transformation, Quentin softly spoke. “Mr. Hans,” he began.

“Just Hans is fine.”

“What class are you? Or is that rude?”

“A few folks might get prickly about that question, but any reasonable person won’t. It’s a reasonable thing to ask.”

“Okay.”

“The best way to describe my class is ‘Adventurer,’ but I know that sounds silly.”

“I don’t know that one.”

“At the end of the day, a class is just a label. Let’s look at it this way, what skills does a rogue learn?”

“Umm… stealth, lockpicking, disarming traps…”

“Anything else?”

“I guess snooping and stealing?”

“Why do you say ‘I guess?’”

“Not all Rogues are pickpockets.”

Hans smiled. “Exactly. We call someone a ‘Rogue’ because it simplifies explaining their capabilities and what their role in a party would be, but you don’t need to be a Rogue to learn to pick locks. One of the best lockpickers I ever met was actually a Black Mage.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. In between learning the spells that are common for Black Mages, giant fireballs and such, he picked locks as a hobby. He enjoyed the process and said it helped with his finger dexterity for casting.”

Quentin nodded.

“Up through Silver, my abilities aligned pretty well with the Ranger class. When I hit Gold and realized I wasn’t going any higher, I started to study everything I could. I wanted to understand the function of each class from the inside out even if I’d never master those skills.”

“Why?”

“I need that knowledge to be an effective teacher. Most instructors only teach their favorite techniques, but it would be kind of silly for a guild chapter to train only Rangers, right? I’m not a master Spearman by any stretch, but I can teach you the fundamentals of what a great Spearman does and how one thinks. If someone wants to become a master Spearman, I can’t take them all the way there, but I can get them off to the right start.”

“I see.” Quentin had mostly retreated into his own mind at that point, which Hans knew to expect. In his short time with the boy, he learned that Quentin was a ponderer. He thought just as hard about answers as he did questions.

“I owe you for your help this morning. Mind if we step out to the yard? I’d like to show you another option off of the overhead parry that I think you’ll like. We can sneak that in before the kids get here.”

***

Beyond Chance and Loddie returning to class–bringing the total student count to 7–no new faces appeared in class that day, child or adult. Uncle Ed had walked the tusk children to class, but instead of watching he sat outside of the fence, out of sight, and napped. Sowing season was a tiring time of year for a farmer.

The class reviewed the material they had covered so far, giving Chance and Loddie the opportunity to catch up while everyone else got more practice. Aside from a few twists to the training games they played, this class was much the same as the last.

That night, with the trill of crickets and a chorus of frogs to keep him company, Hans sat at his desk with Olza’s flower.

What are you?

As expected, his condensed ingredient guide didn’t have an entry matching the purple flower, even if he allowed for creative interpretations of what the leaves and petals may have looked like before they were preserved. Nothing came close.

Olza would have checked her reference guides as well, so Hans wasn’t expecting to find an easy explanation. Still, he felt it was best to follow the process from scratch, eliminating as many potential options as possible, starting with the easiest.

Without access to more reference books–

Should have thought of that sooner.

New Quest: Assemble a chapter library.

He needed to talk to Mayor Charlie about ordering some provisions from the next merchant caravan, so he made a mental note to make reference books part of that request.

Bringing his mind back to the flower, he held it by the stem and absentmindedly rolled it back and forth between his fingers, slowly twirling the blossom.

If we assume it’s not in any reference guide, the next step would be to study and log its properties. It might be a mutation of a known species.

But Olza was already doing that, judging by the graduated cylinders he saw in her shop earlier that day, not that Hans had the skillset to do the tests himself if she wasn’t.

The next step would be to bring it to the local guild chapter, which Olza technically did by showing him the blossom. That was a dead end also, obviously.

Olza said Becky didn’t know, so that step was out too. Druids may not be alchemy experts, but they know the nature in their domains better than anyone. Hans surmised that Becky had lived in Gomi for some time, if not her entire life. For the Druid to have never seen the blossom before, despite it growing in the middle of her home, was peculiar.

We’ve exhausted our local experts and local resources. Do I know anyone who might be able to help?

Hans scrolled through his memories, trying to recall the name and face of every alchemist and herbalist he had met coming up in Hoseki. While the people he considered were experts in their fields, he couldn’t recall any of them having a specialization or research interest that might apply to Olza’s flower.

Mazo might have an idea.

Thinking of Mazo forced a deep, hesitant breath from Hans’ lungs. She did more ingredient collection jobs than any other adventurer he knew, and she was willing to experiment with modified recipes and unusual components.

Mazo was plenty nice to Hans, but she was a Blue Mage. That path of study attracted the most eccentric casters, and Mazo specifically never accepted money from another adventurer. She insisted on being paid in favors, help with whatever projects were exciting to her at the time. So far, doing favors for Mazo had put Hans in the path of a giant feral red slime, an elder fire elemental, and the meanest earth elemental he had ever seen.

Thankfully, those were all separate incidents.

She can’t ask too much of me if I’m all the way out here. Worth the risk.

New Quest: Write a letter to Mazo for help with Olza’s flower.

How people felt about Blue Mages varied, from making others feel slightly uncomfortable to being avoided at all costs. This was also Olza’s project. She should have a say before he sent a letter.

Quest Update: Write a letter to Mazo for help with Olza’s flower, after asking Olza’s permission.

***

Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

Mend the rift between Hans and Devon.

Complete the manuscript for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

Replenish basic adventuring provisions.

Pick up training equipment from the smith when it is completed.

Wait for Olza to deliver the rest of the potion order.

Reestablish alchemical recordkeeping.

Reestablish job-completion and monster-hunting recordkeeping.

Reestablish community education recordkeeping.

Reestablish membership records, financial records, and inventory records.

Learn more about the citizens of Gomi.

Meet Becky the druid, Gomi’s only active adventurer.

Identify the unknown purple flower from Olza.

Keep the guild hall clean.

Assemble a chapter library.

Write a letter to Mazo for help with Olza’s flower, after asking Olza’s permission.