It has been almost one month since I arrived in this town.
During that duration of time, I spent most of my time trying to fit myself into this new society of demi-humans.
My adventurer's life is basically accepting material gathering quests and synthesis quests from the guild.
Material gathering quests is just what it sounds like. I need to go outside the town and gather material listed in the request (for example: Potin herbs) and hand it over to either the Guild receptionist lady or the person who make the request to the guild.
Sadly, it's not as easy as what I first thought it is. Being outside of the town means that there are chances of me getting attacked by monsters or harmful animals.
Forget about monsters, I already have enough trouble in handling wild wolves that I encounter sometimes when I try to pick up herbs for my quest.
I do have an experience in fighting monsters like one-horned rabbit and Gestalt Hydra back in Brahmastra. But the rabbit monster is not as intimidating as normal wolf. In Gestalt Hydra's case, I used my ability take full advantage of the situation and I was really lucky that everything went as planned.
... come to think of it, I was really careless back then. I need to reflect on that.
Back to the topic, it's not easy to fight wolf which is the most frequent animal that can be seen near the area of Liasr town.
With that said, I have no intention of continue being scared by those animals. Thus, I need to prepare many things to fight monsters in the future.
Synthesis quest is a request of people asking for things that can only be made by alchemy. Alchemy is considered a privilege knowledge in this world. Commoners don't usually have access to this knowledge unless someone teach them.
Learning alchemy alone even with the help of books from noble house like mine proved to be really difficult. It took me more than 2 years in my childhood to understand the basic principle of alchemy itself. Even after knowing the basic principle of magic and physics, it also requires geometry and arithmetic too. On top of struggling to learn about the geography of this world, I still need to combine all four principles to understand the full process of alchemy.
In summary, most people cannot use alchemy so they make a request in a guild for those who are able to use it.
I usually take requests of making potions and antidotes. While they are easy to make, people will still need to get the material outside of the town so they make these requests to the guild. I make more profit from taking these quests compared to material gathering quests.
Fortunately, the quests in the guild enable me to have enough income to stay at inn every day.
Therefore, my current schedule as an adventurer is like this:
- Monday to Friday: Taking quests
- Saturday to Sunday: Rest or go to library.
Of course that is not all the activities that I do everyday. Some activities are not mentioned in the schedule because I don't do it based on the time but rather on the circumstances.
For example, I am currently in a certain blacksmith shop right now because I just got my custom-made adventurer's armor set that I ordered 4 days ago.
I look at myself in front of a mirror wearing a brown long sleeve shirt covered with silver small breastplate and 2 silver arm guards. I also wear black long pants and 2 silver leg guards.
"Hmm... not bad I guess..."
"I made the armor as light as possible without affecting much of their durability as per your request."
I hear the voice of a mature woman and look at the source of the voice behind me.
I see a woman whose hair is white and short but skin is a bit darker than mine. She wears a jumper outfit and she is looking at my outfit with serious look.
This woman is Antarea Kilpercgio, a dark elf who is this town's blacksmith.
When I think of a blacksmith in fantasy world, I always imagine a dwarf doing the blacksmithing.
In fact, I saw some of those dwarves earlier in town and they are as same as what I imagined them to be, short and beardy old men. But I guess blacksmithing job is not only for male dwarves in this world.
I adjust the position of a small bag that was attached to my belt near the right side of my back. It was meant for me to put 6 small bottles of my choice, be it potions, antidotes or even poison gas bottle. Of course, I also plan to put Graize Elixir bottle inside it for emergency use.
Then I check the position of my dagger that was attached at left side of my belt. It is at the most comfortable position for me to pull out the dagger.
"Alright, I'll take these."
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I give her 11 silver coins as payment (2 silver coins for each arm/leg guards and 3 silver coins for the breastplate).
Antarea takes the payment and speaks to me.
"I'll say this just in case, but don't do anything rash just because you got better equipment."
"Why would you think I will do that in the first place..."
I know my limit and that's the reason why I chose easy quests to deal with in these past few days.
"I think it's an appropriate advice for a little girl who has been doing quests alone outside of the town for past few weeks though."
"..."
Ok, I got no retort for that.
"How about you start joining a party? You can get more experience that way."
"... I'll think about it."
Avoiding the topic, I make my way out of the store.
A party is a term of this world which is a group of adventurers doing quests together.
It's not like I don't want to be in a party. There are few reasons as to why I just can't get myself to join the party.
... let's not think about it. I arrived in front of the Liasr guild so time to focus on the quests.
Previously, I would just take material gathering or synthesis quests. However, I might consider monster hunting quest this time to test my new equipments.
As I enter the guild, I can hear the loud voice of rowdy adventurers around me.
As I hear their laughter, this thought comes to my mind as I walk to the quest board:
Reason number 1 why I don't want to be in the party, it's because the adventurers here are a massive compilation of annoying scumbags.
Reason number 2 is that I just don't understand their logic.
But let's forget about them and look at the monster hunting quests that are available on the quest board.
I greet the receptionist elf lady and look at quests on the board.
Just like adventurer, quests have ranking system which starts from D to S. An adventurer can only take quests whose rank is either equal or lower than the rank of the adventurer.
Then I noticed that the only monster hunting quests at D rank is hunting Sword Wolves quests.
Sword Wolf is the monster that I met back when I just got teleported to this continent. A wolf with a tail of a blade. That is the weakest and most seen monsters around here.
The quest is about killing 3 Sword Wolves to get 9 silver coins with no time limit.
I really wish I could get an easier monster to hunt like One-horned Rabbits from area near Boorash Town even if it gives me smaller rewards.
"Excuse me."
The receptionist suddenly comes near me and post another D-rank quest.
That request is about creating a wood sign to be put near a certain river for 3 silver and 5 bronze coins. The wood sign is a warning for people to not come near that river.
"... Just creating a wood sign can give me more than 3 silver coins? Seriously?"
The receptionist elf lady hears my words and speaks to me.
"Apparently some people noticed a new type of monster lurking inside that river. The guild is still investigating the matter but we need extra help on miscellaneous things like this."
"I see..."
A monster lurking inside the river, I am suddenly reminded the presence of a big astral body that prevented me from going near the river before I came to this town. I wonder if this is related to it.
"I- I'M SORRY!"
Suddenly I hear a loud voice of someone apologizing. People start looking outside. I am also curious about it so I go outside of the building.
Then I see three people standing near bunch of wings and feathers on the ground.
One of them is an angry male dark elf. If I remember correctly, he is Panthos Genuma, the B-rank adventurer.
"What's your problem brat?!"
He's shouting at a kid whose skin colour is green and has long ears.
Green skin colour and hairless head. Clothes made of leaves... a goblin?
The third person is a human boy who frantically gathers the scattered green feathers and wings back to the big bag he's holding.
Judging from its looks, it is most likely materials taken from monsters.
"Do anyone ever told you look in front while walking?! Huh?!"
"I'm really sorry! I- I was in a hurry so...!"
I can hear other people whispering to each other.
"That goblin kid accidentally hit the slave boy though. Not him."
"Lately, it feels like his mood is getting worse and worse."
From what I heard, it seems that the goblin kid accidentally hit the slave while running and it caused the slave to lose his balance and drop all the materials.
Then the slave boy proceed to speak at Panthos.
"Um.. master. That person already apolo-"
But Panthos looks at the slave with cold eyes and cut his sentence.
"You just shut up and collect the materials."
Then the guy change his attention to the Goblin Kid and try to grab that person.
"!"
I was about a step away from intervening until a certain hand grabs Panthos' hand before he reaches the Goblin kid.
I see that the receptionist elf lady is grabbing Panthos' right hand.
"Cut it out, Genuma."
"!"
Just like Panthos' surprise, I am also surprised that she is suddenly there. I did not see her walking or running either.
"Rimikia... stay out of my way."
Panthos glares at the receptionist elf lady.
The receptionist's name is Rimikia. She is usually have this "I-don't-care" face almost all the time but she is really dependable when right time comes.
Only a small number of adventurers in this town dare to oppose her like Panthos Genuma.
"I would be forced to contact guild master if this keeps up."
"! Tch!"
Panthos gets his hand out from Rimikia's grip in a rough manner.
"Oi slave brat! Quickly collect them and get inside the guild. We got not much time left!"
Panthos shouts at the slave boy who is still in trouble collecting lots of green feathers that are scattered on the ground. He finished packing the wings already.
Panthos then enters the guild leaving Rimikia, slave boy, goblin kid, other spectators and me.
Rimikia then looks at the spectators and speaks.
"If you guys have so much free time, then I'm sure you guys don't mind additional quests to help you kill some time."
The adventurers got scared and decide to scatter to avoid Rimikia's additional quests.
However, I walk towards the slave boy who is still collecting feathers.
I walked past Rimikia but she never threaten me like other adventurers.
Then I start helping the one-armed slave boy in collecting the feathers.
The human slave boy is surprised at first. He does not seem to remember me but still thanks me for the help.
"I- I'm really sorry! But I'm really in a hurry!"
The goblin kid hurrily walks towards Rimikia. That kid's voice is quite feminine. Maybe that goblin kid is a girl? It's hard for me to differentiate the gender of Goblin race.
"A- are you an adventurer!? You look strong!!"
"I'm sorry but I work as a receptionist in this guild."
Rimikia replied with flat tone.
"Re- recep...?"
The goblin kid seemed confused by the term so Rimikia replies by explaining it to him.
"My job is to sort out the quests that was sent to the guild before approving or refusing them."
The goblin kid suddenly looks surprised and start grabbing Rimikia's clothes.
"Then I need your help! My village is in danger!!"
I am surprised by the goblin kid's sudden outburst. However, Rimikia seems unfazed.
"At this rate... At this rate...."
I have not finished helping the slave boy but it seems like he also got distracted by that kid.
Then the goblin kid shouts out asking for Rimikia's help.
"MY FAMILY AND OTHER PEOPLE IN THE VILLAGE WILL BE KILLED!!"