"Those rewards were kind of lame," Levi said as he held a cloth to clean the blood off the side of his face.

"Are you seriously complaining right now?" Anna said. "Most teams do not get any loot or rewards, be grateful for your ability."

"I am grateful," Levi said. "Doesn't mean I cannot judge the quality of the loot."

"Would you rather no loot or poor quality?"

"Why are you trippin over what I said? What's the big deal?"

"I do not want you to get complacent with loot you gain. Riches can cloud one's judgement."

"I think you're projecting, princess. I am allowed to be dissatisfied with the loot."

"I simply do not want you to fall into the habit of expecting great loot all the time."

"I never said I was expecting great loot. Why are we having this argument? This is dumb," Levi said, throwing his hands in the air.

Piper leaned in to whisper to Izzy, "they do this often."

"Really? Why?" Izzy whispered back.

"Honestly," Piper said. "I have no clue. At first, it was fundamental differences in ethics but Levi for better or worse has become a little more ethically neutral. Now, I think Anna just likes challenging Levi and Levi is too stubborn to let it go."

"I see," Izzy said, nodding. "So they are basically siblings?"

"Yep," Tycen said. "Two very competitive siblings."

Eventually, Levi and Anna stopped arguing. Once that was done and everyone had recovered their resources, they made for the small town a few miles away. They arrived at the village and were greeted by little kids running up to them.

"Whoa," they cheered. "Are you adventurers?"

"We are," Levi said, voice soft and gentle.

"How cool!"

"Hey mister," one of them pointed at Tycen. "Are those wings? How do you have wings?"

"I am a race called an avian," Tycen replied, also gently. He wore a soft smile. "We have wings."

"Whoa! I want wings," some of them murmured.

"Aye, leave the nice adventurers alone!" a motherly voice sounded shortly after a woman in a patched dress walked up. "Sorry about them; we don't see too many adventurers these days. I'm Freida, and I run the tavern. I assume you are all just passing through?" Her hair was knotted in a mess, and grim and dirt covered her hands and face. It was a contrast to the pristine-looking adventurers.

"Nice to meet you Freida," Levi said. "That depends. Are there any concerns with monsters or services we could help with?"

"Yes," Freida said. "We have many, follow me." She led the group through the town. The houses were all rundown, the people more so. It looked like this town had been barely surviving for the past few years. Levi frowned as he looked at the skinny, frail bodies. These people had to have been starving. His heart thundered as he was led through the village.

Freida led them to a small bulletin board full of notices. Levi glanced at them all and then removed them from the bulletin board. His team nodded their ascent with his actions. "Does your tavern have room for us to stay while we are here?"

"You're going to do take all of em?" Freida asked absentmindedly.

"We are," Levi said.

Freida shook her head, realizing she had not answered his question. "Yes, we have two rooms. They aren't very large, but they can fit you all."

"Great, can we go there now?" Levi replied with a gentle smile. Piper and Anna shared a look, which Izzy caught. She furrowed her eyebrows. Izzy wished she was close enough to understand their communication with looks. Freida led the team to the tavern.

"I want to warn you, we won't be able to pay you much for the notices. Not in coin at least. If you get all those notices done, I won't charge you for staying."

"All good, Freida," Levi said. "We'll pay whatever your going rate is."

"Are you sure? Usually, adventurers demand to stay for free. I'll gladly accommodate it if you help this town out."

"Yeah, I'm one hundred percent sure; it's all good," Levi assured her. They arrived at the tavern, which was the nicest building by far in this small town. Nice, of course, was relative, but there was a whole, non-patched roof, which was a big start. The team was in one of the two rooms with the pile of notices spread out on a table—there were twenty in all.

"Are you suggesting we complete all these notices before we leave?" Anna asked.

"I am," Levi said. "We don't have to do all of em together; we can split up into groups. I'm sure that even my familiars could do some of these tasks."

"Probably," Piper said. "This place is very sad…"

"It is," Levi said. "I wonder what happened?"

"Sadly," Bradley said. "This is the state of most of these smaller towns and villages. The ones who have a talented craftsman bring in a bit more money so they can afford some nicer things."

"How does this happen?" Piper asked.

"They just get forgotten," Bradley said. "The bigger cities that make money always become the priority; adventurers don't stray far from where the money is. That's how the nation works." Levi frowned as Bradley spoke. Bradley noticed and tried to backtrack. "But it's not all bad." Levi looked up and gave Bradley a gentle smile.

"I'm not mad at you Bradley," Levi said. "Just a crappy situation… it's hard to see so many starving people." Piper squeezed his arm and rubbed his hand affectionately. "Well we'll help these people by clearing out these notices. Let's separate them."

The group separated the notices into four piles. The first pile was things that could be done with just the familiars. These were typically lesser monster infestation, debris clean-up, or some poor-quality food or water supply. The second pile consisted of things that needed some attacking: monsters, rumors of bandits, or thieves within the city. The third pile consisted of things in the area around the town. It was a town that was surrounded by the outskirts of a forest; some people wanted an escort to look for a specific fruit for medicine but were afraid to travel due to monsters. Then there was the fourth pile, there was reports of a cavern that would constantly spawn monsters.

Levi had asked Freida about it before they knew what pile to put it in. A group of five teenagers were out and about when they found the cavern. Only one returned, who died later that night after they were poisoned by something. That was not something that could be dealt with easily, so it would be an entire team effort.

"Izzy and Tycen take some drones and handle everything in the first pile," Anna instructed. They both looked at each other and smiled. "Piper and Levi take the second pile. Bradley and I will take the third pile. Any objections?"

"Do you want some drones with you?" Levi asked.

"Yes please, if you can spare," Anna said.

"I'm pretty sure I can summon a hundred, so yep, got some to spare."

"Very well," Anna said. "We all understand our tasks, do nothing at night, do nothing alone, we shall meet back here for supper."

"Bet," Levi said. "Good luck."

Quest: Notice Board Notices

You have collected several notices within a small town. Complete each notice for a small reward.

Total notices completed (0/40)

Levi looked at the quest and nodded to himself. Levi was going to give most of the rewards back to the village… within reason. Piper nudged his arm and smiled at him, her grey eyes looking at him lovingly.

"You doing alright?" she asked.

"Yeah," Levi said. "Just sucks to see a place like this. I'm going to give most of the rewards from the quest to the village. It'll be up to them to make the most of it."

"You're amazing," Piper said. "I love it. Then let's get started. We only have a few hours until supper, so let's try to knock out 5!" Levi nodded. The two of them said their goodbyes and made their way into the village.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Okay," Levi said, pulling out the first notice. "Whoops, hold on," with a mental command, several drones appeared around him. He gave the command to follow Tycen and Anna's orders. "They'll only listen to you two," Levi said, pointing at Tycen and Anna. "Otherwise, they'll act on base instincts. Good luck, have fun! Now," he said, looking back at Piper. "It says that there is a person named Gretchen; she has been saying she has seen some monsters lurking in her farmhouse. Let's go see where she is."

"Is this place big enough for farms?" Piper asked quietly.

"Oh yes," Freida said. "This is just the downtown area. Our town is small population-wise, but there are quite a number of farms just that way. " She pointed in the opposite direction that the team came from.

"Oh," Piper said. "Thanks for that."

"Thank you, adventurers."

Piper and Levi made their way toward the farmlands. Rundown gravel streets turned into barely paved dirt paths. Fences lined different properties, and large barns were weathered just like the rest of the city. They spotted a few animals, most of which looked starved. Levi went to the fence and saw this weird livestock creature. It looked like a sheep but had small horns on its heads. As there were two of them and each head had a singular eyeball.

"Those are frightening," Levi said.

"Yes, yes they are," Piper nodded.

"Can I help, Yew?" a woman's voice called from behind the frightening creatures. She stood up. She was a young adult, about Levi's age. She was pretty, with long dark blonde hair that fell to her chest.

"Are you Gretchen?" Levi asked.

"Aye, what's it to yew?" she asked snarkily.

"We have your notice," Levi said patiently. "You wrote that you have monsters or something?"

"That's what the notice say don't it?"

"So…" Levi said, glancing at Piper. "Want to show us where they are?"

"I don't know where they are, yew big idiot. I just know my shepins here have been spooked, ain't ate a thang in days. I even saw one of them with some gashes."

Levi frowned at the comment but held his tongue. " Mind showing us where that… shepin... is?"

"It's all healed up but a couple of scars but sure, come on over the fence."

Piper narrowed her eyes, scanning for anything as they jumped over the fence.

"Show-offs," Gretchen mumbled. Gretchen led them to the sizeable sheep-like creature. Tufts of fur were missing as the fur wouldn't grow on scar tissue. It looked like three claw marks on both sides were trying to drag it away. "This is Fulma, somethin tried to snatch her from meh. Nasty creature with all them claws; she almost died from infections. Ever since that night, the attacks have increased. Almost lost a shepin in broad daylight."

Levi looked at the marks with an assessing look. They looked familiar; they were looking for a monster with three claws on each side. He turned to the farmer, "You mind if we have a look around? We'll sort out the monster."

"Do what you must stranger," she said, waving her hand and walking away. "Just show me proof of death."

"She's unpleasant," Piper murmured.

"Yep but can you blame her? I'd be snarky too if my lively hood was being attacked. Who knows how long she's had that notice up there."

"That's a fair point. What do we do?"

"Check for an aura traces," Levi said. "Dameion and Serenity, that's y'all." Serenity stretched off her regular perch, Levi's shoulder. Dameion manifested and stood next to Serenity. The two looked at each other and then set off. While they were investigating around the barn house, Levi and Piper made their way toward the fence line that was just next to the forest.

"This is interesting," Piper said. "The grass is dead so you would expect there to be any kind of tracks or traces of the monster. But there is nothing."

"Unless it flies or is a ghoul," Levi said.

"That is precisely what it is," Serenity said.

"How do you mean?" Piper asked.

"The monster is called the Reaping Drift, they are known for taking livestock," Serenity explained. "Its' aura signature was all over the place. We'll have to come back at night to see it."

"That's a bummer," Levi said. "Alright, let's go tell Gretchen." After telling Gretchen and getting a colorful response, Levi and Piper looked at the following notice to see what they could get done. They were still trying to finish as many as they could. This notice led them to the edge of the town, where they heard a loud buzzing.

"That seems promising," Piper said. Levi nodded in agreement. Following the sound, they approached a massive tree. It was easily a hundred meters tall and ten meters in diameter. Buzzing around the massive tree were insects, gigantic insects. Wasps the size of birds all buzzed around the tree. Their wings buzzed a sound similar to a helicopter—the chorus of buzzing stilled as they spotted their presence.

"The worst," Levi said. "Wisps, you're up." Willow, Crystal, and now Carbon all manifested in front of Levi. They were in battle mode, looking sharp and ready for action. By the time the wisps had manifested, the wasps had made their move. Piper conjured her shadow blade, and Levi conjured a smoke staff from Vapor. Piper slashed her blade easily, cutting through the giant wasps. With each slash, the wasps would fall to the ground, dead.

Team Wisps now have three main wisps spread out far and wide, creating a golden shield of fire. Every time a wasp hit a wisp, it would erupt into flames. That wisps area would be consumed, but it would be quickly replaced. If it weren't replaced, then the wasps would be attacked by Piper or Levi, the two of them making quick work of the monsters. With Levi, his staff would splatter the wasps like bugs on a windshield, which Levi found much more enjoyable. Smashing wasps that were the size of doves left a lot of insect guts flying everywhere.

Although he preferred that over the smell of them burning alive. It was not pleasant. The awful aroma drifted as thousands of wasps were being burnt alive. They were doing well against the wasps without any actual harm being done, but Levi feared that something worse might happen. The entire tree vibrated as the thunderous beating of wings echoed inside the hollowed-out trunk.

"Every hive needs its queen," Levi murmured. A wasp the size of an eagle appeared. Its stinger pulsed in and out of its abdomen, reaching lengths of five feet. Its mandibles were three feet long, sharp, and twitching. It's eyes laid on Levi. A thousand more wasps appeared from behind the queen. These wasps were bigger than the ones they had been fighting but smaller than the queen. Soldiers. They flew all around the queen as they charged the attackers of their hive. With their growing number and size, they would burst through the wisps wall, on fire but having more body mass to burn before dying. They pushed through, focused on one thing and one thing only, attacking the enemies.

Levi changed tactics. He pulled out his summoning wand and began drawing a ritual circle. Levi didn't like using all of his familiars at once, in case they were needed for something else. This was why he decided to summon some creatures to help him. The circle erupted into fire as humanoid creatures made of sharp obsidian stepped out of it.

"Kill the wasps, get the queen if you can," Levi said. While he was doing that, he conjured several orbs of fire, firing them at the wasps that were swarming Piper. She had gotten bit a few times but had narrowly avoided being stung. The orbs of fire exploded all around Piper as she stood her ground with her sword. She conjured her shadow tendrils, and they appeared all around her. She looked like a warrior octopus with dark tendrils, grabbing, smacking, and stabbing the wasps that surrounded her.

She nodded her thanks to Levi as she saw several of the wasps around her explode. She didn't spend too much time looking at Levi as the wasps seemed to come endlessly. For the most part, Levi was unharmed, his resources were being depleted as the lava guardians he had summoned cost a lot of mana to summon, however they were worth it as they provided well needed support for team wisp.

"How you doing?" Levi asked.

"Great," Piper responded. "Do you see an end?"

Levi shook his head, "I don't… Carbon, Willow, and Crystal. Fire swarm inside the tree create a blockade to prevent more from coming in. I'll distract the queen." The monstrous wasp was still staring at Levi with her compound eyes. Levi attacked the queen with several orbs of fire, which were essentially small fireballs being fired at her. She disappeared, moving at lightning-fast speed, and appeared in front of Levi. At the last second, Levi jumped backward, dodging the stinger.

"Fast as hell," Levi murmured. He gripped his staff with two hands and entered a defensive stance. The queen attacked relentlessly, stab, slash, bite, grip, stab, slash, and so on. Her speed was far superior to Levi's; her every move was remarkably quick. Levi, up to this point, had avoided every stinger attack but had taken some nasty slashes. Blood trickled out of his wounds, one on his arm and a small one on his cheek.

It was his turn to attack. Levi changed his staff to have two serrated blades, and this queen's exoskeleton became much stronger. It seemed like blunt damage would not be helpful. With the serrated blades, he felt he could get more ripping and slicing going on. He rushed the queen, and after fighting her for this long, he started to anticipate the movements. She moved to the right, and Levi had already been slashing. The blades cut halfway through the queen's side. The queen tried to move, but the serrated blades kept her trapped.

Levi yanked the staff out, taking most of her side with her. The wasp made a noise that Levi could only assume was her screaming. Several wasps turned towards their battle and made their way to aid the queen. Unfortunately for the wasps, there weren't many of them left alive. Team Wisp had prevented more from escaping and joining the battle while simultaneously killing the rest of the hive from the inside. The lava guardians were killing all the surrounding wasps with ease. Their bodies were hot like freshly made obsidian, so anytime a wasp landed on one, they would burn up, effectively preventing them from being stung.

Piper had also killed her fair share of thousands of wasps. Her dark blade flashed as she continued to move quickly, killing any wasps that entered her sword range. The swarm of wasps that had been attacking her finally died down. Sweat covered her entire body. Her muscles were screaming, and her stamina had run very low. She pulled out her ritual wand and created a ritual of regeneration. Green energy appeared out of the ritual circle and slowly began replenishing her stamina.

Her heart rate was elevated, and she was breathing heavily. She watched as Levi ripped the side of the queen in half. The queen made a hideous noise and then fell to the ground. Half of her insides were exposed from that attack. Levi twirled his staff and stabbed it through the queen's head, killing her.

Levi was panting; his mana and stamina were low. He had some wounds that were slowly healing up. Team wisp exited the tree, the surrounding area was littered with dead wasps. Serenity, who had been watching from a tree, used her fire breath to burn the rest of the bodies.

Monster Defeated: Woodsaw Wasp Workers x3000

Loot: Wasps Paper

Loot: Pollen 10kg

Loot: Woodsaw Wasp King Larvae

Loot: 10000 copper coins

Monster Defeated: Woodsaw Wasp Soldiers x1000

Loot: Wasp Sword

Loot: Wasps Venom 5kg

Loot: Woodsaw Wasp Mandible Sword

Loot: Woodsaw Mask

Monster Defeated: Woodsaw Wasp Queen

Loot: 3-Star Token x 2

Loot: Woodsaw Wasp Honey 5kg

Loot: 5 Platinum Coins

Loot: Woodsaw Wasp Queen Egg

Loot: Woodsaw Wasp Venom 100kg

Quest: Notice Board Notices

Objective Completed: Notice Board #25 - Woodsaw Wasp Infestation

Reward: 100 Copper Coins

Reward: 1 Star token x5

Progress Made: Levi Winters

+15 to strength

+5 to stamina

+6 to speed

+15 vitality

+30 to wisdom

Attribute Totals: 1675

Strength 185

Stamina 236

Speed 166

Vitality 288

Wisdom 780