Iris stood in front of the bulletin board in the town square, reading over all the postings as she had often done as a child. This time was different, though. Either this was all a really good dream, or she had actually caught her big break. She had powers -- real, actual magic powers. The longer she dwelled on the thought the more she felt like she should be asking more questions, but what was she going to do? Give them back? Who would she even ask for answers?
Her best bets in this town were books and adventure magazines, no one living in a place like this had any actual useful knowledge about magic. Everything she knew had come from things she'd read, and even most of those books came from out of town. She purchased as many as she could afford every time a traveling trader passed through. She had already read them all by now, anyway, or had at least read some of all of them.
Shaking her head and deciding to worry about finding answers later, she returned her attention to the bulletin board. There were five notices pinned haphazardly to the corkboard in no particular order or layout. Each note was on a different kind of paper, all handwritten with varying degrees of legibility. Four of the notes had "Lvl 0" stamped in the top right, while the fifth had a "Lvl 1-5" stamp. Each note also had a "Return To:" stamp at the bottom with a handwritten name of the poster beside it, and below that was the listed reward. The higher level one interested Iris the most, but she forced herself to review the lower level quests first.
She recognized the name on the first note as her neighbor in the room across the hall from her own. Mrs. Breardy was a kind old lady who enjoyed baking, and would often have Iris taste test her desserts for feedback -- though she was pretty sure that was just a ruse to share with her, since Mrs. Breardy knew she had always felt bad accepting gifts from people. The note briefly explained that squirrels had been coming in through the open windows and eating her desserts as they cooled on the counter. Iris was skeptical, she walked by the kitchen on her way out of the house every day and had never seen a squirrel in there before. More likely, it was one of their roommates sneaking bites of pie. The reward was only one gold, but Iris would help Mrs. Breardy for free any time.
Next was a quest to search for a lost pocket watch on one of the mountain trails. This felt a little more like something a real adventurer would do, even if Iris was unlikely to encounter any dangerous monsters on the relatively peaceful hike up the small mountain. She didn't recognize the name at the bottom, but this one had a reward of three gold, and she eagerly plucked it off the board as well.
The last two level 0 quests were a lot less desirable. One of them was a farmer requesting help erecting scarecrows in his fields, that wouldn't be a big deal if it weren't for the name at the bottom of the note, which read "the weird farmer at the edge of the valley" in jagged, messy handwriting. Iris sighed, knowing exactly which farmer it was referring to and that he had certainly written that name himself. The guy had always had a fascination with maintaining a reputation as the weirdo of the town, despite not really ever doing anything weird besides trying to convince people that he was, and having a weird looking house. He was generally regarded by everyone as a giant pain in the ass to deal with. Though, he did always wear a sick wizard hat around town, which Iris admired. With preemptive regret, she took that notice as well.
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The final level 0 quest was from her boss, Phineas Quell. It offered a reward for anyone who procured three rosewart, a type of mushroom with healing properties which grew in the caves up in the mountains. Iris particularly did not want to complete this one, largely because she was pretty sure that if she did, next time Mr. Quell would just send her up there as part of her regular job instead of posting a quest for it -- no doubt without any extra pay. Then again, she was probably going to quit tomorrow anyway, and was already going up the mountain for another quest. She grabbed it off the board, frowning when she saw the reward. Two gold, that was less than what Mr. Quell sold a single rosewart for in the shop. She scoffed and shook her head before finally inspecting the last quest on the board.
"Wanted: Exterminator. Infestation of basement slimes. White house east edge of the prairie. Urgent response appreciated."
The name at the bottom was signed as an elaborate signature which Iris couldn't decipher, but she was pretty sure the house in question belonged to the previous mayor of the town. She knew from her magazines that every good adventurer made sure to make friends in high places, and this seemed like a great place to start. Also, the listed reward was 10 gold, which was enough for Iris to take just about any job. She snatched it off the board a little too eagerly, almost dropping the pin that held it in place.
Iris looked over the quests in her hand one more time. She decided she would help Mrs. Breardy when she got home this evening, and then turn in the quests to the town clerk tomorrow morning. Besides that, she would save the basement slimes for last, she wasn't exactly sure what basement slimes actually were but she wasn't about to do that one first and risk being covered in slime the whole day. That left the two quests up the mountain, and the weird farmer at the edge of the valley. Based on the area specified on the notice to find the lost pocket watch, she was pretty sure she could take the trail just south of the lake up the mountain, stop by a cave she had visited a few times before and grab some rosewart, and then follow another trail back down that should take her right through the area of the lost watch before finally depositing her back in the valley not far from the weird farmer's farm. With her plan made, she stuffed the stack of notes into her magic bag and set off on her first adventure.