Entry 6

Maybe staying up all night wasn’t the best idea.

I was still running on no sleep, and still couldn’t find it in myself to rest either. I only felt more compelled to keep pushing through it when I saw the sunshine creep through the window, so I took this as a sign to leave early in the morning and be all professional.

I headed out to the guild to see if I could get a job. Luckily, it’s not that far of a walk and the guild building is really hard to miss with the big shield and swords hanging outside.

She was there again, I hoped she would be. I recognized those gold eyes and strawberry blonde hair from across the guild lobby. She also wears the guild uniform really well. The white blouse with the flared sleeves is nice. The deep muted blue bodice over top that… hugs her well. The long white skirt with blue accents running down her sides from the waist to the end at her knees. She also had this cute little blue ribbon tied in a fluffy bow around her neck. I can… only assume blue and white are the guild colors. Fun!

I was relieved to see her there and not some other worker who wouldn’t have recognized me. I’m… sure she recognizes me given how I was… brought here against my will and… registered unwillingly… to say the least.

Regardless, I was still glad she was there.

I was a little nervous to talk to her today. I didn’t want her thinking I was like… weird for wanting to… actually talk to her. You know, most people just come in asking about quest stuff but I wanted to come in and… also… ask about quest stuff. I was gonna ask about her day too!! Just… after making sure I was properly registered and stuff is all…

I… also was a bit worried about how I looked and sounded. I knew I probably didn’t appear very… lively… I was really trying my best not to be a zombie when I approached her but… I think she could tell I’ve been burning the candle at both ends.

I gave her a little wave and she gave one back. She asked me how she could help me and so I got right into it. I explained how I wanted to register for the guild, but under my own name as my own independent member. I didn’t want to be associated with him anymore.

She gave me a sympathetic look and said she understood. She mentioned how beast keepers usually need to be present to officially release or unregister a beast. However, given my… unique circumstances… she said she should just be able to officially request a change of my registration from “beast” to “adventurer” without a problem. She also said that technically someone higher up should be taking care of this whole thing, but that she’d start the process since the guild head wasn’t in yet this early. She didn’t think she’d get in trouble for something that seemed like a no-brainer, but she’d deal with getting scolded by her superior for me if it even came to that.

I couldn’t have been more grateful. I thanked her… a lot… probably too much to be honest. I then asked her if she needed my name for the paperwork, figuring all official registration document stuff would require my identity. I could never have been prepared for what she said next but I remember it so clearly.

“Ashley, right? Mallory? Pretty name. I remember, don’t worry.”

She… remembered my name. Haha wow why am I kinda blushing writing this down? That probably means I blushed a little in front of her too. I mean, of course she’d remember my name, right? She remembered my… circumstances… so she would remember me too! She’s just… really good at her job! Yeah that has to be it… What else could it be, right?

She then handed me a quill and a paper to sign. Skimming over it quick, it just looked like a basic registration request form with a bunch of terms and conditions and I was NOT going to read all that so I just gave my signature at the bottom. She took the papers then told me she’d put it into the records, and I was free to check out the quest to prepare for the near future. I then asked her where the quest board was since I had no idea and she said it was behind me and to the left.

And so it was. Behind me and to my left, a bulletin board full of various scattered and disorganized papers detailing quests. It was really big. It was like… two Ashley’s long and one Ashley tall and I’m like 5 '5 on a good day.. I was… surprised I even missed it at first. The quests all had big letters at the top of the page with one of three labels: Wood, Stone, and Copper

I assumed this was the guild’s ranking system or something, so I only paid attention to the Wood ones. My day one ass was not about to take some insanely difficult quest to try and prove myself. I was very content with lowballing and taking an easy commission to come back in one piece.

The Wood section had three quests posted. One from an alchemist requesting a certain type of herb in a nearby forest, one that explained that there were giant rats in the sewers that needed to be cleared out, and one from a local farmer who’s livestock is strangely disappearing in the middle of the night.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Without hesitation, I ruled out the giant sewer rats. Fuck no. Absolutely not.

The herb gathering quest by itself seemed appealing… but that was… the quest he was doing when he found me… in the… field… so I wanted nothing to do with it.

That left the farmer and their missing livestock. Definitely beats the sewer rats at least. How bad could it be, right?

I took the paper down from the board and brought it back up to the counter with the pretty guild lady. I asked her if I could take this commission and help the farmer. She was appreciative of my initiative but reminded me that my registration request still needed to be approved by her superior, so I couldn’t officially take quests yet. I got a little worked up and I told her I really needed this job. I also told her that somebody had to help this farmer and that I really wanted to help! I knew I could help.

That seemed to have edged her to my side. I think she was swayed by my determination, or my desperation, or… both. She said she’d put my papers on the top of the stack for her guild head to look over and make sure I got approved, that way I’d hopefully be an official member by the time I got back.

I thanked her a lot all over again, but this time it was totally appropriate. She just smiled and started shifting through more papers behind the counter, saying she was looking for a map to show me the directions..

I… thought this would be a good opportunity to start some small talk! Lighten up the mood and try to talk to her a little more like how I wanted to initially. However… the incredibly awkward exchange still haunts me.

She was… really cold in conversation… Maybe it’s because I was bothering her in her search for the map, or she was annoyed with me because I pushed her to take the quest despite all she’s done for me already. I mean, I get it. If I gave someone a free coffee back at my old job, and they told me to remake it for them because it was too sweet, I’d probably be annoyed too… I was going to ask for her name since she knows mine, but after that exchange I just shut my mouth, not willing to continue to bother her. I’ll… try again next time…

She finally pulled out the map and laid it out in front of me. It was a small map of the town, which I now properly know is named “Newton.” The town seemed to be a big circle of what I assume to be homes, businesses, and the like. No important places were marked besides the guild near the center of town, so I knew where I was relative to everything else. She pointed her finger just outside the circle, in the grasslands just outside the town to the south. She said the farmer’s home shouldn’t be more than an hour walk and I could head there whenever I was ready.

I felt ready! I had one more thing to ask, though. I quickly asked if the sun rose in the east. She looked at me confused but replied of course it did. I just needed to make sure this world’s sun worked the same as mine. Now that I did, I could figure out my cardinal directions no problem! I gave the cute guild woman a wave and headed out for the farm!

After what felt like an hour's walk south, I eventually made it to the farm. I greeted the farmer as he was tending to his chickens and told him I was from the guild. That was enough for him to welcome me and explain what was going on.

He said that he kept waking up to fewer chickens than before. They’d go missing without a single sound alerting him in the night. He mentioned last night that he found animal tracks in the dirt leading up to his chicken coops. He suspects it could be foxes or a similar animal, and urged me to help however I could.

This didn’t sound so bad, I’d just stay up on guard duty to see if I can take care of the foxes that sneak up in the middle of the night to feast on chicken. I assured him that I’d have this handled in no time. He thanked me and went inside to rest.

It took all of maybe 20 seconds for me to get bored. I figured this would be a good time to practice some magic. Now that I know I actually have mana, I want to learn all the magic I can!

Since this is a situation involving beasts, I opened up his my beast keeping spellbook to see what I could learn! I… might as well make the most of it now that I have it.

Luckily, the first spell in the tome was “Minor Trap.” I’m guessing “Minor ____” is just how all intro spells are formatted.

The spell description read as follows: “These instructions will guide the reader on the Summoning subsect art of Beast Keeping. The first spell, Minor trap, creates a small circular area, no larger than the size of a dinner plate in diameter, that can be triggered once the footstep of an animal or a similar pressure is exerted into the zone of effect. Once activated, the mana cast into the spell will form into a small translucent bubble. This bubble will rise from the ground, able to encapsulate smaller wildlife creatures like rabbits, squirrels, large rodents, or small birds. To perform the spell, channel mana out of your palm, wand, or other magical focus, towards the ground beneath you. Envision the size of your circle and focus your mana with the intent to trap and capture, not to harm. If both your intent and mana are strong enough, an orange circle will appear outlined into the ground of which you aimed your cast, before fading on its own to conceal itself. The trap is still triggerable by the caster, so be careful to remember where you laid your traps. The strength of your trap bubble can vary depending on how much mana you exert from your focus to summon your trap. Too little mana may result in your beast breaking out of the bubble and escaping.”

I like writing out the spells I feel like it helps me remember them better. Like taking notes for a test…

Anyway, I tried to practice the spell a bit, thinking it would be a good idea if I set traps for whatever animal was approaching.

Although, the first time I tried to project my circle into the ground, it came out pink instead of orange. It was the same pink my sparkles were when I first figured out Minor Illusion. I even tried stepping into the pink circle to see if the trap would trigger, but no bubble came out.

I guess I was still stuck in illusion mode. The next two attempts were the same pink functionless traps. I was making trap mirages and not actually traps. I guess my muscle memory, or… mana memory? Whatever it is, it was baked into Minor Illusion so that’s all I was able to do.

It was around this time too that my lack of sleep was really starting to hit. I’m also fairly certain that the magic practice quite literally drained me. I felt way more tired from those few illusory traps than the half hour walk it took me to get here.

Regardless, I was getting very tired, and started looking around the farm for a place to rest. I not so hastily entered the farmer’s barn and immediately locked eyes with this gorgeous looking haystack. It looked so enticing. I just HAD to go over to it and collapse, sinking like a rock into a soft sea of hay.

So that’s exactly what I did. I passed out in that haystack expeditiously. I don’t even think my body waited until I was in the hay to fall asleep. Once I was close enough to fall in I just completely shut down.

I couldn’t even say the much needed nap was pleasant. I woke up to an insidious nightmare. A “waking up with a scream and a cold sweat” type of nightmare. I’m writing this entry to try and distract myself from my dream.

I wish I could get into it, but I’ve just realized how long I’ve spent writing and not actually looking over the farm. I went to sleep and it was daylight, but now the sun is setting, which means the foxes are going to be here soon and I have to prepare myself.

I’ll let you know how everything goes. Once again, thank you.

Until next time!