Busy streets.

Just the two of us. Like lovers. I say lovers because Mike for some reason was bashful as hell as he walked by my side. “Is this your first time out here?” I asked, unable to suppress my curiosity.

He flashed me a creepy grin. “Without guards? Yeah.”

No wonder dude was excited like a girl on her way to prom. Anyway, “Do keep an eye out. We don’t know who might have ill intentions.”

“Yeah, I get it,” he said.

Did he though? Our destination was the main building of the adventurer’s guild. We didn’t really come to take on any jobs. We were merely going to familiarize ourselves. I would take lessons from Mike, practice and once I was confident in my abilities, I would start with small jobs sometime next month or maybe a few months down the line depending on my progress. This wasn’t a game. I wasn’t going to get a retry if I failed. So I had to take everything seriously even if it meant I was moving at a snail’s pace. But the more I thought I would, the laxer my attitude got.

I guess I didn’t really recover from that rejection, huh?

“How many churches does this city have?” I asked, my vision occupied with a particular building. We’d merely walked half a kilometer and already seen over half a dozen churches. Small ass buildings, but they were still churches regardless.

“Close to fifty? You’d be surprised how even the most unreligious start praying when things go wrong.”

The houses so far have been the fancy kind. I guess most of the wealthy bunch stayed in these parts.

“Nope, not surprised at all.”

I distinctly remember praying to God ‘somehow fix all my problems’. I’d wish for him to make me taller, give me a better face and even… he never gave me anything though. I was damn close to declaring myself as an atheist at one point, having fed up with God and his bullshit. Actually, I might have claimed I was an atheist as some point in my life too.

Kind of ironic, huh?

Snorting, the two of us passed the people by. There were hundreds of people here on the road. Kind of crowded but kind of not. Students were also out and most of the shops here sold fresh produce and meat. Students who could cook probably shopped here.

“How much are these?” I asked, noticing a particular fruit… Honeycrisps!

Most just medium and small. None of the large ones. Oh wait, you could only find the large one in the capital.

“Five silver a piece,” the vendor said.

The fuck? I could have sworn you could buy a whole dozen large Honeycrisps from the capital city no less, with that kind of money! “How come they’re so expensive?” I asked. And they didn’t even look that good, kind of unripe!

“They’re imported straight from the green city.”

Huh… so they didn’t grow here? Hmmm… “You threw these away?” I asked, staring at the trash pile.

“Those are vile. Wouldn’t recommend eating them. I could just sell you some of the stuff that’s about to go bad for cheap, if you want.”

“How low can you go?”

“Two silvers. That’s how much I bought them with.”

I was tempted to buy one. But I could basically live a whole week with that kind of money.

“I’ll buy one,” Mike said. Apparently, he wanted to buy me one.

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“Don’t, I’ll feel bad.”

“Then how about we pay 1 silver each?”

I sighed. That was still a lot of money. Roughly 5 meals. But- “Okay.”

So, we bought a Honeycrisp from his ‘about to go bad’ pile. I personally ravaged through the whole bag and found a decent one. We used the vendor’s knife to cut it open and share the fruit.

Not as good nor sweet as I remembered; kind of soft and not in a good way. But it still reminded me of home… “Delicious…” I mumbled.

“I’ve had better,” Mike said. “But yeah, I always liked the flavor of this fruit.”

“Hey, can I keep these seeds?” I asked the vendor, pointing at his trash pile.

“Feel free.”

He provided me a bag free of charge. Apparently, he was meaning to throw that away too. Lucky me, I guess. Though I had a feeling he was merely taking pity on me.

If these things were going to grow, people would have already grown them. So why the hell was I taking them with me? I honestly didn’t know. Yet, I wanted to. Was it hope perhaps that I’d find a way?

Or was it just me doing something for the sake of doing it? I wasn’t sure.

But anyway, “It’s still far, huh?” I said.

“Yeah, we have a long way to go.”

You could take jobs from any sub branch but in order to register you had to show your face at the main building.

And the main building was closer to the entrance of the city. Sigh….

***

After hours of walking, we finally neared the main building. During our short journey, I saw countless people going about their days. But no, that wasn’t the issue. Rather, I saw plenty of sketchy figures going about and eyeing me. And almost all of the sketchy figures were… somewhat familiar. So all bad guys here are family… Sigh.

No wait, maybe the Barack family did things differently and were just looking out for me to honor Den? No, they probably had better things to do.

Anyway, finally we made it to the guild main building. Large two-story building with décor and a signboard stating ‘you need it, we got it!’ It’s not like you’re a Home Depot or something.

The door was open. I was expecting to find lots of burly macho men inside. But instead, I was met with loads and loads of teenagers. Hot blooded ready to rebel, huh? I was like that once. Always thinking I had some sort of secret power that would manifest one night and it’d solve all my damn problems. Well, that sure didn’t happen. But I did get beaten up by several upper classmen for fun though. Fun for who? Definitely not me.

“That’s the register,” I said.

“I know,” Mike said. “Let’s go and register,” he said.

“I already did.”

“I did too.”

Then why the fuck were we coming here? I remember the conversation I had with him. he wanted to come here. SO, I assumed he wasn’t registered…. Sigh, I guess he assumed the same. “Okay, so we had some miscommunication…” But, “Well, we could at least take a look at the jobs.”

“Yeah,” he smiled, embarrassed.

He could make that face too, huh? Wait… doesn’t this feel like… date? I shook my head vigorously. Nope, he’s a guy, get over it.

Most of the jobs were cat quests.

* Find My Naked Cat

Looks like a black cat, but is naked without fur. Likes pastry and scratching noses.

Reward: Four Copper Coins

Finding a naked cat in a city this big for four Copper? Also, all cats are naked! Who would be stupid enough- before I could finish my mental gymnastics, someone snatched the poster and went over to the reception. I looked over the other jobs and they paid even less. Three Copper seemed to be the average.

On the contrary, finding dogs seemed easier and more rewarding. Average pay was 7 Copper. I’d need to do four distinct jobs in order to earn enough money to buy one almost bad Honeycrisp… sigh.

Some jobs did pay well but…

* Church Cleaners Required

Open to students and part-timers but you must be of good faith. Must help keep the West Minister Church clean 4 days a week.

Reward: 1~4 silver daily.

“Not bad,” Mike took the job in hand. “What?” He tilted his head quizzically.

“I…uh, don’t like the church.”

His eyebrows rose a bit but he smiled. “Me neither,” he whispered. “But, we gotta do what we gotta do to survive, right?”

No, seriously, kids in this world were so damn mature. Meanwhile, some adults were stupid as fuck.

We went to the reception to get a better idea of the request. Apparently, this particular church was bigger than the ones we saw but was stuck in a rather bad part of the town. And was rundown….

“The pay is good,” the receptionist said. “But I wouldn’t recommend going there. That place is under those Barack Hooligans. And lady of the Baracks...” She cleared her throat. “Let’s just say, I wouldn’t recommend going there.”

“Oh, so basically your mother runs the place? Oh, I see, that’s why you didn’t like that church,” Mike said.

“Mother…” The receptionist paused. “You-you’re lord Barack’s? I mean… Soler Barack, the first son,” her voice trailed off. “There goes my paycheck…” She mumbled.

“Sorry miss, did you say anything? I whacked my head earlier and me ears be ringing,” I said. “Oh, and you said something about recommending this church? Or was it the otherwise?” I intentionally raised my voice just a little.

“Totally recommended!!!” She smiled, forced. “IT’S AN AMAZING PLACE! YOUR MOTHER IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LADY THERE IS!!!”

“True that,” I smiled.

Boy oh boy was I getting stared at!

Anyway, I didn’t want to take the job but given the circumstances, I had to. I’ll quit right after, I guess.