Aria was officially made into a dungeon keeper. With that came a few privileges. First was a magic key that’d open the entrance for her, second was an aiding wisp who’d follow her around, supplying a steady stream of mana to her, and third was a new friend in the form of Pen Pen — a mysterious flying pen who seemed to take a liking to her.

“First things first,” Gray had said, “you have work to do, little lady. The first rule to dungeon keeping is maintenance. That means supplying the dungeon with the necessary mana crystals. If you want to keep the lights on and the water flowing, you’ll need to bring back resources.”

Those resources came from the village’s marketplace. With a bag of bronze and silver coins handed to her by Gray, she went shopping. Next to her was Pen Pen who worked alongside a notebook that rested on her hip. It made a shopping list for her, a real convenient tool.

Sulphur was left behind in the dungeon that became his new home. Aria, with the list in hand, strolled through the marketplace.

“Aria!” she heard. It was the townsfolk. While she was an outcast, she was still treated like an adorable child — doted on by the older folks around her.

“Where are you headed, young lady?” a shopkeeper asked, an older man with quite the mustache. “Are you here for some fresh fruits or what?”

“I’m looking for magic crystals,” she answered, and the shopkeeper’s eyebrows scrunched up.

“Magic crystals? Aren’t those a bit… expensive? They don’t fit in the budget of a child now, do they?”

In response to his question, she lifted up a bag full of those bronze and silver coins. The shopkeeper gawked at the sight of it.

“Well, I suppose if that’s your budget, then it should be no problem.” and he pointed down the street towards said shop.

He led her towards a proper store. Inside, it was filled to the brim with green and brown crystals, though there were no fire, water or wind crystals to be found. A shopkeeper noticed her and waved her over.

“What are you looking for, miss?” he asked, and she poked around.

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“Fire and water,” she answered. “Where are they?”

“I’m afraid we don’t carry those,” he said. “We only harvest plant and earth crystals here in East Tide. If you want water and fire, you’ll have to either synthesize them yourself or go to the capital where all the traders are.”

“But I need fire and water…”

There was nothing that could be done. She left the store, dejected, with nothing but a complimentary earth shard given to her for free for her troubles. She checked her list which had only the two crystals along with a weight measurement of how much Gray would need.

She stood in the center of the village, looking left and right for any sign of the two rare crystal types. That’s when Pen Pen flew around her head, directing her attention towards a building she hadn’t noticed up until now.

It was an Adventurer’s Guild.

It was a quiet day in the Adventurer’s Guild. Nothing big was happening and that morning, the usual adventurers all came in to inspect the quests that were available. Included among them was Aria who pushed her way past the swinging doors that made up the entrance.

She was a little shrimp in comparison with the adventurers who were mostly made up of sword-swinging warriors and rangers armed with bows. They were the ones hunting and killing monsters for rewards, the opposite of her goals, but when she took a glance at the cork quest board, she saw it.

A quest with the reward of a good number of fire crystals. She took that quest and brought it over to the counter where the receptionists waited. Aria had to leap up to slap it down on the table, and with that, the receptionist — a young woman — looked down on her with an expression of confusion.

“What’s a kid doing here? Aren’t you a little young to be doing dangerous quests?”

“I want fire crystals. No — I need them.”

The receptionist took a glance at the quest, then winced.

“So, a little squirt like you are gonna fight off some slimes? Do you even know how to fight? As far as I can tell, you don’t have any weapons on you.”

Aria paused, then reached down into a satchel. There, she pulled out a vial filled with a potent red liquid.

“What the Goddess is that?”

“I’m an alchemist, as this is my special brew. I call it the bomb bottle.”

Aria peeked into the vial, and on closer inspection, she could see tiny bombs floating in the liquid. Whatever the heck it was, it was potent for sure. The receptionist saw that and her eyes went wide.

“Alright, I guess you know what you’re doing.” and with that, she stamped the quest sheet. “Go and talk to the requester. Once you finish their request, they’ll sign the sheet. Bring it back to redeem your reward.”

That was all she needed to hear. With that, Aria made her way out the guild.