They chatted a tiny bit. Soon, Jessica had to move on. While she too wanted to wait for Saleh. That was only if he returned within a decent time frame.
Making a trip out. Jessica returned to the northeast branch. Taking a glance at the requests, she made her way to the front desk. Within a short amount of time, it became her turn.
“How can I help you?” There was a man behind the counter. Black long hair and a neatly trimmed beard and mustache that was groomed into a single piece of facial hair.
“Completion.” Handing her identification, she also put forth the horn.
Being unable to identify the material. He used a reader to check her identification. Seeing her accepted quest, there was a slight change in expression. Turning to look at her, “Uhm, we will need a bit of time to confirm if this is acceptable proof.”
Not being something outside of her expectation, “That’s fine.”
Smiling a bit more politely. The two separated. Jessica didn’t need to wait, it was unknown how long it would take to complete. Credit would likely be given shortly. As for determination if there were any problems, would take longer.
Moving back towards the requests, Jessica had some free time. As she did this, the man had gone to a back room to report. Once everything was filled out and sent up. He returned to help the next person waiting in line.
By this time, Jessica was seeing a bunch of problematic requests. Standing in front of the header for escorts. Some were far, requests that required them to return to a human city. Others took place inside Mercury City, looking for an escort back to human or dwarf territory.
The largest problem, she saw, was distance compared to pay. Jessica was familiar with some, other cities she didn’t know the location of. Most of them were unknown cities. A lot in return would label a major city in the vicinity.
For this reason, she could tell that the pay was either too high or too low. For those that were too high, were fishy. As if they had just finished their sale, appearing as if they were trying to skimp out on security by hiring a large number of Grade F and Grade E adventurers.
Low paying ones had less of a security risk. It was simply just not worth the time and effort put into the request. From Mercury City to the outskirts of animal kingdom, was five days in the Adventurer’s Guild eyes. That was a tenth of the time given to complete requests worth ten gold.
A lot of these places were in the five to ten day range. However, these requests paid less than the equivalent for the time. While her original request was five days for two gold. Double the amount to be worth the time. That was also through a broker. Claire and Jack were renown, therefore there was a premium.
If each day, by the Adventurer’s Guild standard, wasn’t equal to at least twenty-five silver. It wasn’t worth the time. Jessica hadn’t put too much time into searching through these before taking the minotaur request. If she did, Jessica was of the opinion they would have been there since then.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Only if someone was ahead of their quota and was looking for a break or doing a favor would they take such a request. Even still, the former didn’t add up. Mercury City didn’t allow for much free time for a newcomer.
From her perspective, it was a trap request. Request accepted by the guild only to weed out the useless. It wasn’t difficult to see, however, the requests seemed fairly easy. With this perspective, it would be believed there would be a higher graded being.
Both perspectives, this and one from before. Price couldn’t completely determine the requester’s thoughts. Working with the Adventurer’s Guild as the middle man was a disadvantage. To really make it, Jessica needed to make a name for herself.
It would be best if requests came to her, not the Adventurer’s Guild. If she really made a name for herself, it was said that the Adventurer’s Guild would even send personal requests to you. Though this rarely happened before Grade C.
Looking through the requests, Jessica couldn’t find anything that stood out. Maybe she was just being cynical, these requests in front of her felt odd. Either too good to be true, or a trap. By lacking information, or poor reward from a time or amount of work needed perspective.
Disheartened, Jessica decided to move through the halls. Returning to the quiet library. This time she didn’t use the search function. Browsing the aisles, picking out monster encyclopedias. Anything that could further her knowledge on anything that might save her life in the future.
Back in the main hall, a man with a chubby build walked in. He had light blue hair and blue, with a bit of gray in his eyes. Moving to the side, he didn’t line up but went behind the counter. After finding the person he needed, he waited for him to finish his current work.
“You asked for a material inspection?”
This person being asked was the same man that helped Jessica, “Yes.” With a polite tone, he brought the man to the back room.
Once the storage with the item in it, he couldn’t help but ask with a bit of uncertainty, “Usually such things take far longer to get someone to come by.”
A smile hang on the man’s lips, “So you want to know if it is something important?”
Not daring to reply, the man didn’t lose his smile, “Moderately. Though even if it is a bit important. The only reason I came to confirm the request, is because I have a connection to someone involved in the request.”
The staff member showed an expression of somewhat understanding. So long as everything was within the lines. Slightly bent could cause trouble, while here they weren’t bent. Things were just finishing faster, everything was in line, so there wasn’t much else he could say. Nor did he dare to say anything else.
Letting out an impressed whistle. Hearing this, there wasn’t any surprise in the other man’s eyes or face. Jessica was only Grade E, while what was being shown was the horn of a minotaur. An extremely dangerous creature. It really was impressive in his eyes too.
He had looked, and Jessica and a few others were out on the request. None of them took the request at the same time, not even remotely close. Two of the few were labeled as expected dead. Therefore, it was that much more impressive, as she should have completed the request on her own.
“Did you see where the person that turned in the material? It is a rather impressive feat, I would like to meet them if possible.”
With a hint of respect, the staff member replied, “Yes, she seemed to be going into one of the back rooms.”
Nodding with a smile on his face, “Well, I won’t keep you anymore. I will mark the request as complete. That concludes everything.” Watching the man leave, Fred couldn’t help but mutter to himself, “Hah, that little chick came and didn’t even come by to say hi…”