Well, that will help, now I can pay what I owe the blacksmith's guild and I will still have a hundred gold to replace my equipment. Leaving the adventurer's guild I head over to the blacksmith's guild to pay what I owe and replace my gear. Since I am not human, I am not able to just buy new armor, instead I have to have it custom made.

Since I have to wait for armor anyway I decide to order some custom swords as well. The total price ends up being 150 gold, so I end up owing the guild 50 gold, but the custom work will take a few days. Since I haven't gotten much rest the past few days I head back to the castle to recover.

The next day after I am done training my troops I return to the adventurer's guild to look for a new quest. As I enter the guild, before I can head to the quest hall, Lily calls me over to the reception desk.

Lily says "Adventurer Ash, the manager would like to speak with you."

"Um, okay. Sure, lead the way."

Following Lily I end up going upstairs into a new area of the guild, it looks like this is an area for employees only. Lily leads me to a waiting room and asks me to wait here before she returns downstairs. A few minutes later a beautiful blue haired woman walks in, her hair is up in a ponytail showing off her slightly pointed ears.

Zimmy says "Hello, I am Zimmy, the manager of this branch."

"Hello, Zimmy, my name is Ash. Not to be rude, but are you a half-elf?"

Zimmy says "Yes, I am. Is that a problem?"

"No, not at all. I only asked because I was curious."

Zimmy says "Then we are on equal footing, as I have never met a humanoid beast before."

"Fair enough. So, may I ask why I am here?"

Zimmy says "Normally, an adventurer has to complete a certain number of quests to be promoted to the next grade. However, in your case, considering you dealt with two quests that should have been a higher grade, I have decided to promote you anyway."

"So you are promoting me to a grade B adventurer?"

Zimmy says "Correct. Since you will be the first grade B adventurer this town has ever had I wanted to tell you personally."

"Oh, so the town hasn't had anything above grade C before this?"

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Zimmy says "No. So don't be surprised if you face jealousy and persecution because of your promotion."

"No worries, I am used to it already."

Zimmy says "I thought you might be. It probably isn't as bad for me as it is for you, but I do understand some of what you face. Hopefully the fact that you are a captain in the army will help."

"I doubt it, but don't worry, I can handle myself."

Zimmy says "Alright, here is your new badge. Feel free to come talk to me if you need anything at all."

"Thank you!"

As I head back downstairs I attach my new badge to my chest, once again I am the focus of all eyes when I return to the main floor. I see shock and incredulity on most of the faces when they spot my new rank badge. However, I ignore them and head for the quest hall, I want to take a look at the grade B quest board.

Again as I enter the quest hall I become the center of attention but I ignore them as I head over and start reading the grade B quests. Instead of choosing based on the payout I am instead looking at the enemies listed. I want to kill off any monsters that are likely to join the invading monster army.

After reading all eight quests that are on the grade B board I decide to take the one dealing with ettins. According to my knowledge from D&D ettins are two headed giants and are likely to work with the army. They are often used in monster armies as mobile siege weapons, they can easily destroy a castle's walls.

According to the quest they inhabit the hills in the east of the kingdom and they frequently attack caravans on the trade road. Thanks to that the quest reward is five hundred gold, more than enough to pay for everything I want to buy. Taking down the quest notice I take it over to the redemption counter and hand it to Mapleleaf.

"I wish to accept this quest."

Mapleleaf says "Are you sure? Trying to take on ettins alone is not recommended."

"I am sure."

Mapleleaf says "Shouldn't you at least wait until you have replaced your equipment?"

"Don't worry about it, I will be fine."

Mapleleaf says "As you wish."

After she hands me a crystal to record kills I thank her and leave, the quest is to kill fifteen ettins. Furthermore there is a bonus of 25 gold for any ettins killed above the fifteen for the quest. Taking the east gate out of town I follow the trade road towards the hills where the ettins live.

The first ettin is really easy to find, it is standing atop a hill watching the trade road. It stands a little over ten feet tall and has two heads, the body is covered by thick fur so it looks more like a two headed ape. Also like an ape its arms are longer than its legs, it will have a long reach and can probably move quickly using its arms and legs.

As I study it, I realize that fighting it with two swords is probably a bad idea, its reach will make swords useless. So instead when I activate mage knight blade I create a great sword with a six foot blade. If this doesn't work well I will try a different type of weapon, but I'd prefer to stick to swords since that is my specialty.

Approaching the ettin is fairly easy, its two heads are only concerned with watching the road. As I get closer I can hear the two heads arguing with each other in low gravelly voices. Before I attack, I check the area to make sure there are no other ettins close by.

In my search I find a camp with five ettins sitting around a bonfire eating unidentifiable meat. The camp is a decent distance from the lookout, but if I am right about their speed it wouldn't take them long to reach him. So if I am not able to kill the ettin quickly I might end up facing six of them at once.