S7, First Task

“Welcome back to the guild, trainees. How can I help you?”

We were finally back in the guild building, and the person attending the counter was the same receptionist I had met the first day. I remembered her attitude was a bit overwhelming. I would let Terence handle this.

“Hello ma’am receptionist, I’m Terence of Flodbred, and we have some monster parts to sell.”

“Hello Trainee Terence, I’m Anne of Calpavaros, you can call me Miss Anne. If you want to sell some materials please bring them to the counter.”

“Miss Anne, just call me Terence, please.” Terence signaled us to put the parts on the counter. “These are the articles, four dismantled dungeon lizards.”

Looking at the two interact I notice both of them wore similar smiles.

The guild receptionist began examining the items. We brought almost everything except for the bones and a few organs, even the intestines could be used to make strings. After taking a look at the claws and teeth she carefully unrolled the hides.

“The skinning work is quite good, and there are almost no cuts. I can offer you twenty-five coppers for each of them, as for the rest the guild pays fifteen coppers for the meat and other useful parts. The total would be one tiny silver and sixty copper coins.”

“Only that? We worked all day to get them!” Falnid complained.

“We normally offer fifteen to twenty coppers for a whole dungeon lizard, twenty-five if they are in almost perfect condition.”

So my two hours of work amounted to sixty coppers. It wasn’t bad considering that carrying four lizards from the depths of the dungeon was our limit.

“That’s…” Falnid stopped for a moment, counting with his fingers. “Only enough for a couple of meals for each of us! Can’t you offer us a little more?”

“I’m very sorry, but the prices are stipulated by the guild, I have already offered you the most I can for these monsters.”

“Ugh, in Vesturkal…”

“If you are interested in making some money you can accept a request from the bulletin board,” Anne cut Falnid before he could keep complaining.

“How does that work?”

“Come with me, I will explain it to you.” The guild employee went around the counter and guided us to the bulletin board.

There were only a few tasks on the bulletin board, each paper sheet had some symbols that resembled the chalk marks in the dungeon in addition to written text. Looking at both they seemed to tell the same things.

“These sheets have the various request you can accept from the guild, as you can see most ask for a certain monster’s parts or other materials, but there are different kinds, some can only be accepted once, while others can be accepted several times, you can see it here… Do you all know how to read?”

Everyone assented. It was a little surprising since most commoners in the kingdom never learned it. I had been taught by my parents, they had told me I would need such skills if I ventured outside the mountains.

“Good, most adventurers are illiterate, so these symbols are standard everywhere, you probably noticed they are the same ones you can find inside the dungeon, they explain the general terms of the request,” Anne pointed to one of the sheets.

“Even if you know how to read it’s useful to also know some of the signs, that way you can take a quick look at the posted requests. I recommend it to all the trainees of our guild. This one for example means the request can only be accepted once, to accept it you need to tell a guild employee beforehand so he can write down who takes the task. Have in mind that this kind of job usually needs a guarantee made beforehand and can give you a penalty if you fail to fulfill them,” Anne kept explaining.

“For requests that can be taken any number of times there is no penalty nor need for a deposit. Apart from that some tasks have certain conditions. Normally they ask for the adventurers who take them to have a certain plate, other times there is a time limit, or the quest asks for the materials to be delivered in a specific way.”

The explanation was a little dense, but I probably got the important details.

“I will let you have a look at the requests now. If you have any questions come to the counter to ask me.”

Anne left for the counter and we took a look at the bulletin board.

“Let’s do that one! It pays fifty gold coins!”

“Impossible. It requires gold plate adventurers, and they have to kill a lesser drake that roams in the dungeon. Oh, that task only asks for rats to be exterminated, and it pays a copper coin for each right ear we bring. I guess they put it up for the trainees,” Terence said glancing at one of the sheets.

“Ugh, I’m not killing rats for a copper coin,” Falnid said.

“Um, I don’t think we can easily catch rats without bait,” Bolton said.

“Good point, Bolton, each ball of bait costs twenty coppers, so our margins would be quite bad. Catching lizards is way more profitable.”

“That one asks to bring the skins of five dungeon varans, those aren’t in the corridors…”

While the three of them kept discussing the different tasks one of the requests caught my attention. “This one is doable, it just asks for some herbs.”

“Can you recognize them, Simon?” Terence asked.

“Yes, they should grow in the forest to the south. I have gathered them before.”

“In the woods? I'd rather go hunting in the dungeon again," Falnid said.

“It pays fifteen copper coins for each stalk, and it says it’s urgent. How many do you think we can find?” Terence asked.

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“I’m not sure, that herb is rather common, but maybe someone has picked most of the ones near the town. Even so, I’m sure we can gather a few, especially if you help me. They aren’t so difficult to spot once you know where to find them.”

“I still think hunting is more fun.”

“Falnid, if Simon says we can find a few then we probably can make quite a bit of money. Didn’t you want to avoid eating in the dining hall?”

“Yes, but…”

“Simon, how much do you think we can get with this?”

“Um, it pays for each stalk, so at least a couple tiny silvers. The forest to the south is quite big, unless someone has over-harvested all the woods we could pick five or six tiny silvers worth of them in one morning.”

“Did you hear that, Falnid?”

“Fine, let’s go pick weeds in the forest,” Falnid accepted reluctantly.

“Good, we worked a lot today, let’s have a good rest tonight and go pick them up tomorrow morning.”

The request could be accepted any number of times, so we left the guild building and headed to the trainee quarters. As I was wondering if I could pick other useful plants in the forest Falnid began to talk with Terence.

“Um, now that I think of it, how is that woman related to the guild?”

“What do you mean?”

“She said her name was Anne of Calpavaros.”

“Calpavaros is the name of Perendin’s capital, she was born, or used to live there.”

“Oh, true, you use the names of the places you live in, it’s a bit strange… You said you were Terence of Flatbread, Freeman, didn’t you?”

“It’s Flodbred.”

“Ah, and what’s a freeman?”

Falnid’s question picked my interest, I had also never heard someone refer to himself that way.

“It means that no one owns me, nobles like to think of people born in their territory as their possessions, so it’s like a declaration, I’m from Flodbred, and I’m a free man.”

“Uh, if a noble hears that, you will be lashed in the square,” Bolton said.

“No problem, Algus is under the direct control of the king. There is only a relative of a minor baron taking care of the administrative business.”

“Uh, just be careful. I heard he has a bad temper.”

“Ha! The one in charge is Litton Waldorf Peldin. He is a spineless man that only knows how to lick his superiors’ boots. He was in Flodbred before. I guess he is grumpy he has to be in charge of a small town.”

It was my first time hearing Algus was a direct property of the crown. It was quite unusual, with its size it could be a barony, or maybe be part of Duke Benslinn’s territory.

“Hey, Terence, what’s a peldin?”

“Eh?”

“You said that Litton of Waldorf was a peldin.”

“Huff… alright, Falnid, hear me. Commoners here use their birth names followed by the place they are from, and end it with their or their parent’s profession. Nobles with titles use their birth names followed by their title, and it usually coincides with the name of their birthplace. For example, the marquess of Flodbred is Riston Flodbred.” Terence sounded a bit exasperated.

“And the close familiars of titled nobles use the family names of their parents. The father of Litton comes from the family of Baron Waldorf and his mother is from the family of Viscount Peldin, which makes him Litton Waldorf Peldin. Do you understand?”

“No.”

“… Well, it doesn’t matter, you will get it little by little.”

“You make things too complicated here, in Vesturkal everyone is named the same way, I’m Falnid Irrenson of the Irumar, that means my father is Irren and I’m from the Irumar clan, simple, isn’t it?”

“If you say so…”

As we quietly reached the trainee’s quarters, it was clear both had lost interest in what the other wanted to tell.

…

“Here! I found a stalk of heelen herb,” I declared while raising a plant stalk with five small leaves.

It was early in the morning and we had reached the woods soon after eating breakfast. Everybody was anxious to make money after tasting the gruesome morning meal.

The forest wasn’t very dense. There were low bushes and ferns that barely reached our knees, while the young trees with gray-colored bark were high enough that their branches and leaves didn’t impede our vision. They were also quite distanced from one another making the forest very bright even at this early hour. The scenery was full of green tones and a few spring flowers could be seen peeking from the patches of grass here and there.

“Oh, that’s curana. We use it to treat wounds in my village. It stops wounds from going bad,” Bolton said.

“That’s right, this herb prevents wounds from festering. Do you also know where to find them?” I asked.

“Yes, they grow in small clears that don’t get too much sun.”

“Good, then we can do this faster. Let’s split into two groups, but don’t go too far. It’s better to stay within sight of each other… Falnid, please, come with me.”

I brought Falnid with me, he talked so much he might distract Bolton from working properly. Without wasting time I focused on searching for herbs and a few feet away Falnid imitated me.

“So, Simon, how is life in the mountains?” Falnid asked while inspecting some grass.

“Hmm, I guess you could call it slow. You pass most of the time tracking animals, or laying traps. Once you find the prey things end quickly. Well, sometimes you are stuck pursuing a bleeding animal not knowing if it will tire soon or not.”

“It sounds a bit like the badlands, although in them every animal can see you approach, so you have to ambush them. My father took me hunting a couple of times. It’s really boring.”

“I see, in the mountains, we also have to gather wood for the winter and repair our log cabin before it gets cold. Then we pass most of the winter inside or training in the front yard.”

“It really sounds a lot like the clan, but we don’t use much wood there, the warriors bring some monsters from the dungeon during winter and we make oil from them. They also bring big barrels full of it. I think they fill them using dungeon plants or some kind of fruit, you can also cook with it.”

I had heard my father’s stories about the Vesturke and how they relied on the dungeon for almost everything as their land was barren. Falnid’s stories weren’t new to me, but it was interesting hearing them from someone who lived there.

“So what’s the bigger prey you caught in the mountains?”

“Hmm, I have hunted some ground reptids alone. My father wouldn’t let me deal with bigger beasts. He said it was too dangerous. One time we caught a bullbear. When it got up on its hind legs it looked really tall. It took us a lot of effort to make it fall. We had to use poisoned arrows, so all the meat was wasted. But the fur sold for a lot! You should have seen its mane, it was really cool.”

“A bullbear! I have seen a lot of dead ones. The warriors of the clan hunt them regularly in the dungeon. They are really impressive with their broad chests and their mane. I wish I could see a living one. What color was the one you hunted?”

“It was brown, are there other colors?”

“Yes, there are black ones, at least in the dungeon, but they are quite rare.”

I had already picked half a dozen stalks of heelen herb, and Falnid had found a couple too. If Bolton and Terence had gathered the same amount we would already get two tiny silvers from this task.

“How are beasts in the badlands?” I asked curiously.

“Um, near the clans most animals are small, and if you go to the west most beasts are scaly ones. Some fly in flocks while others roam alone on the ground.”

“I see, if you go westward in Perendin you will also see more scaly beasts, I heard there are draconids near the wildlands.”

As we kept going deeper into the forest the sounds of animals had started getting louder. Especially the wyrds on the trees.

“Ugh, those damn wyrds. I hate their noisy screeches. There aren’t many in the badlands, but here the woods are full of them.”

Certainly, the flying reptiles made annoying shrill chirps, but I was accustomed to hearing them day and night.

“If you stay near the forest they will eventually not bother you anymore.”

“I doubt it, let me find a stone!”

“I guess it may take some time.” I flatly muttered to myself.

“Dammit, take this, you vermin!” Falnid threw a stone and a flock of small wyrds flew away from one of the large trees near. Their feathered wings and tails sometimes reflected the morning sun.

After working all morning the four of us had gathered more than eighty stalks of heelen herb. Hopefully, the guild would accept all of them.