Mira and Luke walked down a wide cobblestone road filled with dense, heavy traffic located in the upper region of the city. They stopped at a large ornate building with a heavy amount of foot traffic. To the right of the building were two large gates that opened into a large venue filled with multiple carts parked next to each other. The venue was less like a building and more like an open market with no roof and symmetrical dotted metal frame windows.

“That’s an odd building,” Mira commented as she took a glance through the open doorway.

“They use that building to process and verify bounties. The reason it’s open like that is so the stench doesn’t get too bad, especially since it is in the upper quarters.”

Walking through the main door of the building, Luke made his way up to an elaborate counter that extended from one side of the building to the other. Doing a quick count, Luke could easily make out about fifteen or so attendants, each with at least five people standing in line.

A man who was standing next to the door walked up to Luke, presenting him with a practiced bow. “Welcome to guild headquarters. Are you here to turn in a bounty?”

“No, I’m here for this,” Luke said, pulling out a rolled sheet of paper from his side pocket.

“Ah, right this way,” the man said, ushering the two behind the counter. After a short trip up a flight of stairs, the man stopped them right outside an ornate wooden door. “Give me a second while I inform the Guild Master.” Giving the door three quick knocks, the man walked in announcing Luke’s presence. With a nod, the man fully opened the door.

“Come in, come in,” a short man with a thick gray beard and a set of terrifying face tattoos said. 

“Nice to see you again Bur,” Luke said, taking a seat in a costly dragon hide chair.

“That’s Guild Master Bur to you,” the man responded with a deep heavy chuckle.

“So, what’s this about?” Luke said, placing the paper on the table.

“It's exactly what it means. I want to set up a guild presence at your shop. I know I already asked once before, and you were always too busy for it, but I had heard a rumor from a couple of people that you had taken in an apprentice, and to my surprise, you even brought her with you,” Bur said, giving a wide smile at Mira, who was, at this point standing shyly behind Master Luke. “No need to be so reserved, there's more than one chair.”

“No, I’m fine,” Mira squeaked out, the man’s face tattoo giving her a bad vibe.

“What do you even mean by ‘guild presence,’ have you even seen my shop, it’s tiny.

“I mean, I want to set up a quest board.”

“A quest board? There are thousands of other shops you could put a quest board in.”

“True,” the man nodded, “but, there are no shops in the lower district I would trust to have a quest board other than yours. As you know, our quest boards are highly regulated, and all quests that are posted onto the boards must first be verified and given a difficulty rank as well as meet our reward criteria.”

“If the quest needs to be verified first, then what is the point of setting a quest board up in my shop. Everybody that sets up a quest needs to come here first anyways. Don’t you guys distribute quest flyers to the other board after a quest has been verified?”

“Ah, that where you’re wrong,” Bur nodded. “We used to do it like that, but do you remember the conversation we had a few years ago when I was working as a mercenary.”

“No?” Luke said, scratching at the back of his head.

“So this was right after I had just taken in a large hunt, and we were out at the tavern drinking. After you had a couple of beers, you went on about how the system needed to be more efficient. I wasn’t too sure what you were talking about, but then you said, ‘they need to optimize the questing thing, maybe a new UI and some new features.’”

“Did I say that?” Luke said, letting out a nervous laugh.

“There is no one else I know that talks like that,” Bur said with a smile. “After a couple more beers, you went on a bit of tirade about how they could make a few changes to the quest system to make it work better. You said something about how instead of having quests only being verified in one location that they should have it the other way around. Then you ended up passing out.”

“So, what does that have to do with my shop?”

“So starting in a few days, we want to try out something new with a few shops. Instead of having quest be verified only here, we want to see how well it would work if we let shops verify quest.”

“How do you plan to do that? Place an attendant in each shop?”

“That's where your lovely apprentice comes in,” Bur said, pointing to Mira.

“I plan to have a class set up in a few days. The classes will go over our guidelines and regulations in regards to setting up quests and assigning ranks to each quest.”

“Hm… I like the idea, but I’m pretty sure no one is going to take the class.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because you’re giving them more work with no incentive.”

“Ah, that where you’re wrong. We plan to give them a cut of our registration fee to each location whenever they register a new quest.”

“Wow, you thought out most of the details. This is far from the Bur who use to tell me ‘if you can’t bash its head in, all you need to do is bash harder.’”

“I still bash heads on the occasion, but not with monsters. You know how many adventuring parties come to me complaining about how little they are getting paid.”

“How much are you charging?”

“The same as when we were adventuring. Ten percent from the listed fee. I’ve seen some guild charge thirty, and these adventures have the gall to tell me I’m charging too much.”

“So, how much are the shops taking if your thing does pan out.”

“Twenty percent of our fee, or a minimum of one copper.”

Looking over to Luke, Mira started to count on her fingers. “How much is that Master Luke?”

“Two percent, or two coppers for every gold.”

“That doesn’t sound like a lot.”

“It’s not when putting in that context, but let’s say there was a bounty to kill a dragon. If they placed the bounty at our store we would get two percent of the bounty which could be up in the range of ten thousand gold or more.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“So for a dragon, we could see a fee of two hundred gold,” Mira said, still counting on her fingers.

“Yes, but the example I gave you was impractical and would never happen.”

“Why is that?”

“While dragons are a big threat, the only people able to take out contracts for them are kingdoms, or extremely wealthy nobles or trading guilds. That’s because the starting contract fee to kill a dragon usually starts at ten thousand gold. Let’s say that there was an off chance that someone of that rank came into the store and requested something of that manner. It would be highly impractical for them to leave such a sum of gold in an unguarded place like ours before it was delivered to the main office. That’s the reason Bur put in the ‘or one copper,’ clause. If people do come in to post a quest, most of the time it’s going to be something generic like ‘kill rats from my field,’ or, ‘hunt for my lost cattle.’ The fee for those types of quests is usually a handful of silvers.”

Bur crossed his arms and looked over to Luke. “How are you able to pick apart my plans, which took me several months to think up, in such a short time.”

“Any trader worth their weight in gold could have told you the same thing. Don’t get me wrong,” Luke said, holding up his hands, “I think it’s still a good idea, but I’m not sure how practical it is.”

“That’s the reason we’re having this testing period. It’s like the saying you always use.”

“And what would that be?”

“Use the damned test server to test the patch first, not the live one,” Bur said.

“When did I say that?” Luke said in shock.

“Anytime we would go out to drink, you would always say that, or something to that manner. I’m not too sure who a patch or a server is, but you kinda explained it to me, even though you were pretty much out of it.”

Crossing his arms, Luke leaned back against the plush chair. “So why Mira?”

“She’s maybe only a handful of people that meets our requirements.”

“How so?”

Fidgeting around his desk, Bur pulled out a freshly rolled piece of parchment that was brought to him by this morning. Looking over to Mira, he held out the roll to her.

With a bit of hesitation, Mira grabbed at the paper, and slowly unrolled it. Eyeing it, she looked back at Bur wondering what she was supposed to do with it.

“Don’t keep us waiting,” Bur said, “tell us what it says.”

“It says, quest report, one hundred and seventy-two active quest, thirty-two pending quest, and forty-seven quest currently in progress.”

“May I see that,” Luke said, looking over to Mira.

With a nod, she handed him the parchment, glad that she didn't have to read the whole thing. 

“What is this? It's just a daily tally of your operations.”

“It’s not about what's on the sheet, I just wanted to know how well she could read,” Bur said, taking back the scroll. “As you know, people living in the lower quarters of the city aren't too well versed, and even if they are, it's only bits and pieces that they are required to know for their profession. ”

“Besides Mira, I don't know that many other shop attendants let alone shop owners that know how to read in the lower quarters. What other shops can you really get if that is one of your requirements?” Luke asked.

“That’s where you come in,” Bur said with a grin. “While we're hosting our quest board class, I would like for you to teach the attendants, or anyone interested in that matter, to read and write. Classes should only be two hours and be about three days out of the week. We would pay you for your time of course.”

“Wait, how did putting a quest board in my shop end with me teaching a class,” Luke said shaking his head.

“Just think of it as an investment for the people of the lower region. Having the ability to read and write is a highly valued trait. And while they do have a minimum of a one year service time for new participants in the trial, I think overall anyone breaking out afterward should be able to move up in ranking to find a higher, better paying job.”

“Hmm,” Luke brooded. “And how long am I expected to teach this class?”

“Each set of classes would be for a span of two months. The classes don’t need to be too in-depth, but they should be good enough for anyone entering to be able to read and write quest scripts. We would hope that you could stick to this schedule for a year’s time, and during that time I will have a few of my attendants sit in on your classes. They will learn your teaching style and once the year is up, they will take up your mantle of teaching.”

“So Mira would be attending the class?”

“No, she along with three other people, two from this district and one from the middle, will move straight to learning quest script. Our class should only take two weeks, but we're going to shorten it to one for the first class because Mira along with our other applicants show exceptional learning capabilities,” Bur said, looking over to Mira. “After the classes, we would immediately have them start working and take in any feedback for the upcoming classes.”

“Okay, who else is in on this?” Luke said. “Not to be rude, but that plan has more forethought than all of your other plans put together. Granted a majority of them are, ‘run-in, kill monster, get reward.’”

“I’ve had years to think about this,” Bur replied. “I'm nearing the endpoint to where I just need a bit of help from you to get this moving. I’ve already set everything else up, the last part is getting you to agree.”

“Wow,” Luke said. “Waiting till the very end to get me involved, that seems like a tactic Elaine would pull off.”

“Huh, yeah,” Bur said, letting out a small laugh. Luke’s eyes gazed straight at him, his forehead now visibly growing damp with a cascade of sweat that threatened to drown him.

“Guess the jig is up,” a voice said, coming from the corner of the backroom behind Bur’s desk.

Mira took a step back, as she recalled not so recently that this woman, Elaine, had broken into the Master Luke’s shop.

“Bur, you never were one to keep a secret,” the woman said, taking the seat adjacent to Luke. 

“So what's the game?” Luke said, looking at Elaine.

“No game,” Elaine said, shaking her head. “I, out of the kindness of my heart, wanted to help our dear friends Bur, is that something so out of the ordinary?”

“Oh...” Luke said in a slow draw, this time staring daggers at Bur, as now a visible halo of sweat could visibly be seen forming around his shirt. 

“Alright, alright,” Elaine said, waving away Luke’s accusations at Bur. “I was going to put a few of my new recruits in your class.”

“That’s it?” Luke said, scratching at his head. “It's a basic reading and writing course. It doesn’t matter to me who attends it, but that doesn’t mean I've accepted the offer. Also, why do you want to stick recruits in an untested class? Don’t your recruits already know how to read and write, and even if they didn't, aren't there already several other schools that teach the same thing.”

“I’m not too worried about the untested part. You manage to teach that girl plenty in such a short time,” Elain said, pointing to Mira. “About the school part, it's a bit difficult for me to put them in such a class.”

“Why is that?”

“You could say these recruits come from a less than reputable source. Spotted them doing some five finger shopping while I was out on patrol. Instead of throwing them in the dungeon, I decided to give them a few tests and they surprised me on how well they worked as a group. Now I'm in the process of training them, the only thing is that, well… If I threw them in a class in the upper quarters, they would stand out like a dull knife in a barrel of polished daggers.”

“So instead of drawing noble eyes, you want me to teach them,” Luke said, wrapping up Elain’s thought process. “So what do I get out of all this?”

“That’s simple,” Elaine said with a smirk that could stretch across the kingdom. “You're going to do it by the goodness of your heart.”

“What?”

“Oh come on Luke. I’ve known you long enough to where I can tell what you had for breakfast today. I’m guessing bread with slices of meat and cheese; yesterday was probably leftover stew with a side of greens.”

Mira, who at this point had taken the seat next to Master Luke, was surprised and alarmed that Elain’s guesses were completely on the mark.

“And how would you know that?” Luke said.

“So for today, since you had to come here for the meeting, you made sandwiches because they are fast to make and easily transportable. Yesterday, or really the day before yesterday, we had exceptionally cold weather. You love to eat stew on cold days, and when you make stew you tend to make a lot. And what happens when you make a bunch of stew?” she asked, pointing to Luke.

“I eat it for breakfast the next day,” Luke replied. “Still how does this relate to me teaching a class?”

“You love to help kids, especially one in less than favorable positions. I happen to have kids in such situations. What would happen if I were not able to find them someone that could teach them manners and etiquette?” Elain said, fanning mock distress. “Why, I would just need to count it as a loss, and throw them in the dungeon.”

“Uh-huh,” Luke said, swiping up and down at his face with the palm of his hands.

“And don’t forget the kids from the other inns, and taverns,” Bur added. “You would be helping them out tremendously.”

Lifting his head up, Luke slowly tilted it towards Mira. “What do you want to do?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. I’m not going to force you to take this questing class thing.”

“You know what Mira...”

“None of that,” Luke said, breaking Elaine’s sentence. 

“Well...” Mira said, her words coming out quieter than normal. “If it helps the store, then I’m willing to take the class, and if anything, the quest board will help us get more customers.”

“Very well said,” Elaine said, getting up and placing both hands over Mira’s shoulders. “And you Luke?”

Letting out a groan, Luke pushed himself off of his chair and walked out the door. Not sure what was happening, Mira quickly followed suit, making sure to give both Bur and Elaine a bow as she exited the room.

“What just happened?” Bur said, looking over to Elaine.

“That’s his way of admitting defeat,” Elaine said with an adamant feeling of victory. “Once you have the schedule set up, send him a copy, send me one as well.”

“Why do you need one?”

“So I can keep track of my recruits,” Elaine said with a smug.