The party quickly moved on to the other areas in the forest where they could find the plants they needed for the other quests. Roge’s skills came even more in handy than before, able to find the plants quickly and even growing the younger ones to full maturity to be harvested. It almost felt like a call, as once the plants they were searching for came within his range, his focus would instantly fixate on them. It took them the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon to find all of the required plants, but they soon located the road back to town with high spirits.
“I don’t think we’ve knocked out this many quests in one day before. You really are a cheat Roge,” Marge commented, slapping the dragon on the back.
“I mean… if we’d needed to go out into the desert, I’d be useless. The terrain just worked in my favor.” He scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment, slowing down a bit from the group so he could avoid more praise and look over his notifications.
Draconic Accelerated Growth increased in Rank! → Rank 3 (4 → 3 Days)
Nature Walk Skill increased in Rank! → Rank 3
Nature Senses Skill increased in Rank! → Rank 4
He was slightly surprised by the two Rank jump in his Senses Skill, but he definitely liked the bonuses it gave. He’d also kept up his Leaf Armor up the entire time, but apparently it would only Rank up when put to the test. It was still smart to keep it on in the woods though, the party having told him earlier that there may be a stray goblin or two in the woods since they hadn’t been sure that none were away when they’d attacked. “It’ll take a few months for them to build up strength though,” Sean had mentioned, Roge thinking that goblins were more forest pests than anything if even a Copper party could handle them perfectly fine.
It took a while, but they eventually reached the city and all headed to the Guild building, wanting to turn in their Quests and chill for the rest of the day. Handing in the Quests also gave Roge a start, however, as he received multiple notifications.
Monk Class has increased in Rank! → Rank 2
Draconic Mage Class has increased in Rank! → Rank 2
Draconic Mage Class has increased in Rank! → Rank 3
Draconic Mage Class has increased in Rank! → Rank 4
“Whoa,” Roge breathed out, shocked at the amount of experience he’d gotten for his Classes. “How many Rank ups do you normally get for these Quests?” he asked, starting once again as he became aware that everyone, including him, had sat at their normal table.
“One, maybe two if I used two Classes.” The others nodded at Sean’s statement, the tigerkin peering suspiciously at the dragonkin. “Don’t tell me… those collection Quests counted towards your Mage Class…”
“How many did you get?” Hops asked, whistling at the three fingers Roge held up. “Not going to see that ever again. You got lucky your Magic Class overlaps so much with what should have been Gardener or Forager experience. That’s a good thing to note actually.” His familiar notebook came out again as he wrote furiously, the elf already ignoring the rest of them.
“One more and you can get the next Rank of skills for your Class.” Marge gave him a creepy smile at that, Roge frowning at the expression. “That’ll give you more item creation Skills for sure. Maybe you can then make a better version of those vines.”
“I’m not paying for your property damage bills again,” Sean huffed, giving Marge an equal frown. “Last time it took almost all of our Quest earnings. Speaking of.” Sean pulled out a small bag of coins from his inventory, Roge grunting as he tried to keep it off the table. “There’s your earnings Roge. Enough to keep your room for the week, though we’ll need to go out in a few days so you can start saving. Don’t want to go Quest to Quest just for rent.”
Roge nodded at that as he pushed the bag into his inventory, sitting back as the waiter came around for drink and food orders. The rest of the day was spent relaxing as all four got severely wasted, toasting to their overall superiority in the woods.
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~---~
The next few days were filled with mostly filled with training and more training, Roge having been told to stop showing up at the smoke shop as often due to the plants having grown too fast. Sean had moved Roge over to the training field out the back of the Guild building to train with his vines and teleports some more. “You need to develop a style of fighting with the Skills so you don’t freeze up in combat. Last time it didn’t effect things, but next time you could be in serious danger.” That was the mentality Sean put the dragonkin under as he fought the various combat dummies. Some could move around and others would stay still, so Roge had to pay attention so he could hit and teleport without bumping into them. Most of the time he failed, finding it good to train up a lot of his stats at once.
That was only half of the days of course, the other half consisted of joining Hops in the library. Intelligence training wasn’t all about knowledge or memorizing, but mostly about problem solving. They stuck to nonfiction books, puzzling out the lore of the world and figuring out how they could use it in their future situations. Roge’s brain hurt by the end of it, but it was worth it by the time they were all ready to head out for another mission.
Strength: 25 (2/2 Skill Slots Used)
Dexterity: 42 (1/3 Skill Slots Used)
Agility: 28 (2/2 Skill Slots Used)
Constitution: 43 (4/4 Skill Slots Used)
Intelligence: 61 (5/6 Skill Slots Used)
Charisma: 16 (1/1 Skill Slots Used)
Skills – [Fold]
Gardening (-) Rank 2
Inspect (-) Rank 2
Draconic Accelerated Growth (Int) Rank 3
Draconic Magic Plant Destruction (Int) Rank 1
Draconic Magic Plant Creation (Int) Rank 1
Leaf Armor (Con) Rank 2
Vine Wall (Con) Rank 1
Nature Walk (Agi) Rank 3
Nature Senses (Cha) Rank 4
Familiar (Plant) (Int) Rank 2
Plant Infection (Utility) (Int) Rank 1
Combat Focus (Con) Rank 3
Unarmed Fighting (Str) Rank 2
Unarmed Blow (Str) Rank 3
Dodge (Dex) Rank 3
Thick Skin (Con) Rank 2
Matching Steps (Agi) Rank 2
He smirked at the gains, especially loving the new slot he had for Intelligence. Matching Steps had worked beautifully, allowing Roge to quickly pick up how Sean moved around while training, as well as finding some other Guild members to train under. He wasn’t going for the tank role like Sean after all and needed to learn how to move more swiftly.
He was excited, of course, to snatch up the Magic Punch Skill, but he held off until after the new Quest they took up, hoping to not freeze up during combat again. Of course the Quest they were on shouldn’t have involved any combat, though they were prepared for it anyway. The party told Roge they liked to take delivery jobs every other week so they didn’t pile up too much. That delivery was to deliver various herbs and gemstones to a hut about an hour outside the town called ‘The Witch’s Hut’, as the fumes from the hut were too much to have in a residential area. Many of the potions that the Guild sold came from the hut and the second part of the Quest detailed buying up the witch’s stock to bring back with them.
“So… there’s something you should know about this particular Quest,” Hops informed Roge along the way, the other two party members nodding in agreement. “We’ll leave the supplies and money outside the hut, leave, and then come back an hour later to collect the potions.”
The three seemed to enjoy Roge’s confused look, the dragonkin trying to parse that arrangement out. “Are they just… shy?”
“We don’t know. It’s how the Guild always dealt with the witch and the supplies don’t get collected unless no one is there. A few parties have tried to catch the witch in the act, but they just increased the time they were standing out in the woods. So no real gain there and the potions are too good for the Guild to pass up.”
“But…” Roge mumbled, still overly confused by the situation. “Anyone tried leaving notes?”
“Some have before, but there was never any response.” Hops shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what to tell you. That’s just how this particular Quest works.”
Roge sighed at Sean and Marge’s chuckles, shaking his head and looking around the forest. “I’ll go do some scouting if you all don’t mind.” They all nodded at that and handed over the paired compass followed by Roge stepping off the path, Walking around the area to make sure nothing snuck up on them. It was something that happened frequently enough according to the stories he’d heard, and it would take his mind off the matter of the oddly reclusive witch.