Today’s the day my party takes on its first official quest. I wonder if we need a name, I’m not really good at coming up with names, so maybe I’ll leave it to Remi. In any case, I think it would be cooler for us to gain a name that represents our actions. As long as it doesn’t have anything to do with portal menace--then it’s fine with me.
We all agreed to meet at the guild around 9 AM in the morning so we could look at all the currently available quests, however I decided I couldn’t wait and went ahead of everyone else. Nazuko was too lazy to get out of bed this morning, so I left her gear with her in my room. Hopefully it all fits her, or else I may have wasted a bunch of imperial gold.
I enter the guild and as usual there’s a fight going on and lots of drinking. Ah it's too early in the morning for this sh*t. The people of Colonus or at least the adventurers are really fight happy. I walk up to the board where the guild usually posts their quests, but apparently there’s nothing that’s been posted yet. I go to the guild’s secretary (I think I remember her telling me her name was Willow, but it would be awkward if I got her name wrong) and ask her if there are any quests that available at the moment.
“Hey, umm, Miss Secretary, are there any quests that are currently in need of completion, I’ve finally got a party assembled and we're raring to go,” I announce.
“I thought I told you my name was Willow, how would you feel if I started calling you portal menace?” she says passive aggressively.
“Sorry, I forgot.”
“Tch, well, good news, there are two quests I have available--one of which everyone’s been denying as of late and the other one has a rather large reward attached to it so it's a pretty good quest for a starting adventurer’s party, if you’re willing to be risky. I’d appreciate it if you could at least look at the first one though,” Willow pleads as she hands me two pieces of parchment, each describing their respective quests.
I take a look at the first quest that apparently is rated as a 4 star quest, but the reward is really low. Only 200 gold coins? Split amongst the six of us, that’s like 33 gold coins. This isn’t even worth doing if it was just me and Remi. The task is to kill a creature that has the ability to mess with souls. It's been causing havoc all over the town and there’s been reports of people acting strangely and the animals going crazy. I also notice there’s a weird description at the bottom that doesn’t seem like it was written by the person who posted the quest.
Likeliness to die on this quest: Little, however there is a chance that you’d get fucked up if your soul happens to get swapped.
“Why are people rejecting this quest, it seems rather easy judging by the likeliness for death ranking?” I ask Willow.
“It’s not because people are afraid to die, they’re afraid to have their soul swapped with another creature. The person who posted this quest had their soul swapped with a cat, and I heard one guy even became a turtle,” she states.
“Isn’t the effect temporary at least?”
“Nope, people will stay swapped unless the creature dies. The creature in question is invading a poor town so that’s why the reward is so little. So many groups have already rejected the quest, I’ve taken it down from the quest board and I’ve been forced to bump up the ranking.”
I see, no wonder so many people won’t accept the quest. Firstly there’s the matter of getting fucked up with your soul being placed in another body and secondly the reward is shit. I see Remi come through the guild doors and come over to me. She’s at least 30 minutes early, but I guess she couldn’t wait either. She recognizes me in my armor since I’m currently not wearing the helmet.
“Whoa! Cool armor, but I gotta say, it doesn’t look all that heroic. The black and purple makes you look kinda demonic. I think you'd look like a badass villain though,” Remi says as she greets me.
“Yeah, I didn’t get to decide the color scheme, I blame my goddess,” I respond.
I show her the piece of parchment describing the first quest and I ask for her opinion.
“Definitely not Will, we’re supposed to be heroes going around saving the world. We don’t have time for petty squabbles like this. Especially when the reward’s so low. Leave it to some amateur group, we have got to take on a more difficult quest where we can gain recognition and money,” Remi asserts.
Honestly, I’m not in this for the money, at least not as much as Remi seems to be, I just wanna have a really fun adventure. I’d attempt it if the reward was higher though. I wonder how that quest would have gone. In my party there’s 4 girls and one other guy aside from me. If our party got swapped, there’s a very high chance that I would end up in… Yeah, not thinking about that.
That would get way too perverted, way too quickly. I’d probably have Ryder nuke the place and be done with it so we wouldn’t have to get so close and risk being swapped. Although that would defeat the purpose of completing the quest since all the townsfolk would die, so I can’t see that going well for us at all.
“Sorry, Willow, but this just isn’t the one for us. Here add this to the reward sum, maybe it’ll incentivize someone to take on the quest,” I say as I toss Willow some of my spare change.
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The reward is 250 gold now, not too bad if it was for just one person.
“Thanks, I’ll keep trying. . .” Willow says, somewhat defeated.
“Okay, let's look at this second quest then,” I tell Remi.
The second quest is also a 4 star quest, but damn that reward is hefty. We are supposed to acquire/steal a valuable artifact from the local mafia in the city of Yrden and use that artifact to clear a dungeon that spawned on the outskirts of the city. It’s worth 18,000 gold and whatever we can steal from the mafia. From what I can remember of Quincy’s history rants, the city of Yrden is the second biggest city in Dreden aside from Colonus so it should be pretty impressive.
Likeliness to die on this quest: High, potentially lower if you’re stealthy
Remi looks at me with conviction and I can already tell this is the one.
I say one word to her,
“Yes?”
“YES!” she replies.
Well that settles it. We are taking down the mafia or at least stealing from them. If anything, we’re going to have to fight them since I doubt our team is anything but coordinated, stealthy and quiet. Remi and I spend the next 30 minutes chatting and placing bets on the fights happening in the guild. Finally the rest of our party comes into the guild all geared up and ready. I notice Nazuko’s wearing the armor I bought her and luckily it looks like it fits.
Ryder and Azura are wearing the same clothes as when I met them. Lilith is wearing heavier armor than usual, but no helmet. She also has a shield and a fancy looking longsword. It must be a family heirloom or something like that. Remi and I fill them in on the quest we accepted and hopefully everyone approves.
“So, we’re fighting the mafia, huh, sounds awesome. Let’s do this thing!” Ryder exclaims.
“Time for me to show off my thief skills,” Nazuko states while cracking her knuckles.
“Alright, my first quest!” Lilith says excitedly.
“A quest in the city. I can already feel the property damages from here,” Azura claims.
Everyone seems to be in agreement so that's good, or at least almost everyone. I’m sure Azura will warm up to the idea once she sees how big the reward is.
“In that case let's head out today, it’ll take at least 3 to 4 days to head to Yrden by horse carriage so we better get started,” Remi announces.
As we prepare to leave the guild Armstrong calls out to us,
“Good luck out there you guys, you better have quite the story to tell when you come back. Be sure to give the mafia a good punch for good ole’ Armstrong.”
As we walk away from the guild I can see Quincy and a group of strangers next to him walking to the guild. I heard from Marianne that she was going to force Quincy to go on an adventure of one of his own when he wasn’t being trained to become a knight. I guess this is what this is. I would invite him to join my party, but for whatever reason whenever we are together, my chaotic luck seems to get amplified. Maybe another time, pal. We barely have time to greet each other since Remi is hastily running for the gate to Colonus and everyone is running after her. I take a moment to greet Quincy before running off after Remi.
“Oh, hi, Will,” Quincy says.
“Hi, Quincy, I’m going to go on an adventure now. If you’re going to do the same--well, good luck. I heard there’s a really easy quest in the guild that no one’s accepted yet, so if you’re trying not to die, or if you want to read during it, I’d suggest going for that one,” I say while trying not to mention the part about getting your soul swapped.
I mentioned reading so that should at least nudge him in that direction. I’ve known Quincy long enough to know when reading is involved he can be persuaded to do things.
If anything, I think Willow shouldn’t answer their questions too clearly about that quest if she decides to offer it to them. I told her to be extremely vague to the next group that she offers that quest to so they’ll think it's your standard monster extermination request.
“Okay, then, good luck on your quest. And try not to become a terrorist, like you are here in Colonus,” Quincy says as he and his group walk away to the guild.
Honestly, that’s a good point, if I’m going to a new city then people can’t call me a menace since I’m basically not known there. I know there’s definitely been rumors spread about how even Vulcan heard about my arrival and he was in the freaking land of the elves. Either way, this is my chance to make a name for myself.
As we arrive at the castle gates and we are waiting for a carriage to take us to Yrden I decide we need to do one last thing before we leave.
“Guys, there’s one last thing we have to do before we head off,” I say as I ask a nearby artisan to draw a picture for us.
“Everyone, I want you to make the most fabulous pose you can possibly do. In my homeland, doing this is a ritual for having extremely good luck in your future endeavors,” I inform.
“Seriously cool! In that case, how's this,” Ryder states as he makes a pose where he puts one hand covering his right eye, while standing on his toes and bends backward to the point where he’s almost about to fall over.
“Awesome.”
I already like Ryder, he’s a good man. I’m glad he’s part of my party.
“Umm, okay is this good?” Azura says as she makes a pose where she’s tugging at the exposed part of her robe near her chest, and lowers her stance like a sumo wrestler.
“Perfect.”
I swear Azura is secretly competing for the position of best girl in my heart.
“I’ll show you the best pose then,” Lilith reveals as both her arms and legs are crossed and her left eye is closed.
“Spot on!”
I’m glad we're getting married.
“Is this really necessary?” Remi asks.
“Yes, or you’re not going on the quest.”
“Fine, I’ll give it a shot,” she accentuates as she crosses her arms and her hands make that Rock pose where the middle and ring fingers are down.
“See, you can do it if you try.”
“My turn!” Nazuko claimed as she put her right hand on her hip and her left arm was positioned to her right side as if she was almost dabbing.
“I’m so proud right now.”
I get in the center with everyone posing and I put my hand in front of my face and my other arm is stretched out to my side. The artisan draws the picture of all of us posing and I pay him for his work. Today is the best day ever. I’m going to hang this picture on the wall when we get back from the quest. I place the drawing in my pocket dimension and a carriage arrives to take us to Yrden. Alright, it's quest time!