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Sorry for not posting a chapter the last two days. Had finals. Failed finals. Finals are over. Back to writing~
This chapter is rough. Only slightly edited. I changed a bunch of the scenes around a few times, and I still don't feel satisfied with it. I may rewrite it later but keep the general 'content' the same. The dialogue feels a bit forced. If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments section and thanks for reading!
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Susan lead me and Benson back downstairs and away from her tiresome guildmaster.
“Is she always like that?” I asked, trying to mask the exasperation in my voice.
“Yes. You should be thankful today was a good day. Sometimes she’s even worse,” replied the clerk with a pained tone in her voice.
“I certainly wouldn’t be able to handle working for someone like that,” I mused softly as we reached the bottom of the stairs. The number of Adventurers in the room seemed to have increased from earlier. Several more teams were sitting at tables scattered about and two new groups were set up in front of the ‘D’ rank board. Some looked our way but quickly averted their eyes. If this was some cheesy novel I’m certain an arrogant bastard would come up to pick a fight with us, soon. I guess Benson being a 6’ 6’’ lion beastman with a buster-style sword strapped to his back kept the rabble at bay. Well, for all I know they could be afraid of me with my enchanted leather outfit! I’m ferocious looking, after all~
To accommodate the busier Guild, a second receptionist was now working at one of the other counters. Susan gave the girl a light wave before resuming her post.
Two blank cards were presented to me and Benson. Both were carefully laced with the letter ‘C’.
“Please channel some magical energy into these cards. If you can’t do that you can place a drop of blood on them instead,” said Susan as she took on a more professional tone.
I quickly did as she asked and suddenly a picture of me appeared on the card via some strange magic. It also listed my name, age, and professions. Thankfully my race wasn’t present. I glanced over at Benson’s and his had the same information except ‘age’ was omitted.
“Okay, I’m going to give you a quick explanation on how taking guild requests work,” said Susan with a practiced tone. “The bulletin boards over on the side of the Hall have requests and missions listed on them. These missions are grouped based upon their difficulty into ranks from F to S. You can accept any mission equal to or lower than your rank freely. You can accept up to three missions at a time at most. If you wish to take on a higher ranked mission, you are free to do so but you must pay a deposit to the guild upfront as insurance in case you fail it. The higher the mission is over your rank, the higher the deposit you’ll need to pay. If you succeed at the mission your deposit will be returned along with the mission rewards. If you do not complete the mission within a specific allotted time that varies from mission to mission, you will forfeit your deposit and any rewards. By completing missions of equal or higher ranks than your party average, you will slowly accumulate points needed to advance in rank. If you wish to advance higher than ‘C’ rank though you need to visit a bigger Guild in a city somewhere.”
“So we can technically accept missions of any rank?” I asked, just making sure I heard everything right.
“Yup, but if it’s higher than your rank you need to pay the deposit on it.”
“Okay, that’s fine then. I was worried Benson and I would be stuck gathering herbs or some other annoying job,” I said with a smile.
“Oh, and make sure not to lose your guild card. It’s what we use to record your active missions. It costs a Middle Mark to replace.”
“Thanks, Susan,” I replied with a smile as I took Benson over to the mission boards. I knew, for a fact, that doing anything lower ranked than ‘C’ would just be a waste of our time. Unfortunately there weren’t many high ranked missions on the board. I decided to start at the ‘S’ section where there wasn’t a single piece of paper posted and work my way down. One, in particular, caught my eye.
> Wrote: A swarm of Wyverns had appeared in the North of the Thrush, on the edge of the Mire. Wyvern cores are beneficial to my experiments. Bring back the magic core of at least 5. Reward: 5 High Marks and all other materials from the wyverns.
>
>
> -Cardinal Reyes, Magician’s Guild Vice Guildmaster, Golden Thrush Chapter
With a quick move I plucked the paper from the board and started walking towards the receptionist desk.
“Oy, that’s an ‘A Rank Mission’,” exclaimed one of the men sitting at a nearby table. I paid them no mind, though, and simply handed over the paper to Susan.
“We’ll be taking this one,” I said with a smile.
“Ah, okay. This one will require a deposit of half the reward and the limit will be two weeks,” said Susan as she eyed the paper.
I pulled three High Marks from my bag and handed them over without a care. I also took out my new Guild Card and handed it over. Benson did the same.
Susan used a strange stamp on each of our cards, imbuing it with a strange spell.
“The requirement for completion is 5 Wyvern Cores. You needn’t bring back the full corpse if you don’t want,” said Susan as she fiddled with the paper, “I suggest you keep the scales, claws, venom sacks, and teeth. The bones, organs, and skin are usually not worth dragging back.”
“Thanks for the suggestion. What kind of venom do Wyverns have, anyways?” My question was a genuine one. I didn’t remember ever seeing wyverns in Xternity. I’m certain they probably existed, but they were probably deep in dragon territories so most players would avoid them. That said, if we ended up finding dragon territory searching near this Mire I was fine with losing the 2.5 High Marks. This mission was only ‘A’ rank so I assume there shouldn’t be anything as dangerous as a dragon appearing. After all, even the guildmaster here was ‘S’ rank in the past… I don’t a spell to scout levels of people, but Benson does. I’ll be able to ask him how strong she was later. I’m certain he used it. He tended to be cautious.
“Wyverns have a nerve toxin that causes paralysis. It’s a venom, though, so as long as you don’t get bitten you’ll be fine,” said one of the nearby adventurers. He was a blond haired man with a soft visage.
If it was a ‘stun’ poison then I could probably make use of it in my crafting. It’d depend on the potency though. Using my ingredient analysis skills I’ll probably be able to figure out a good way to make use of it. Perhaps we should hunt more than five? The magic cores in my inventory are all very high level ones. If I could acquire some lower ranked cores here, then I could craft cheaper goods for the populace. Using high level magic cores would make way too strong of effects for the levels of people in this area. I doubt anyone would be able to afford the pricings I’d have to place.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It might be worth it to search for White Lodestone to make gates at some of the major cities. Perhaps I could get a ‘shop’ set up in all of them. That way I could put some higher level equipment out on the market.
I thanked the adventurer who provided that small tidbit about wyvern venom briefly before leaving the building with Benson on my heels.
“Benson,” I said in a soft tone.
“Yes, mistress?”
“Let’s do this quick. Let me ride on your shoulders. I’ll use an [Ingredient Scan] while you move north. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for Wyvern scales. We find some discarded scales we’ll find their nests. Oh, and if you feel any kind of danger, I permit you to drag me away. Use our old hunting codes.”
“Yes, mistress,” replied Benson with a smile as he took a knee, letting me climb onto his shoulder. Some of the people walking by stared at us, but I paid them no heed. Nobles could get piggyback rides from their servants from time to time!
Benson started running through the town due north. I activated [Ingredient Scan] and a flood of information began to filter through my mind. We traveled this way for a while in silence before I decided to speak.
“Hey Benson, what level was the Guildmaster?” I asked while keeping my eyes vigilant
“She was level 32, mistress.” Replied Benson.
“So Tenia’s initial assessment of the town’s levels was wrong?”
“It seems that way, mistress.”
“What about the levels of the adventurers inside the Guild Hall?”
“They were all between levels 6 and 14.”
“So they fall in line with Tenia’s initial statement. Perhaps the Guildmaster wasn’t in town when she scouted it out?”
“That’s possible, mistress.”
Suddenly [Ingredient Scan] relayed the information I had been looking for.
“Benson, change course to the right by about sixty degrees. They’ll be a few miles ahead of us.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
It had only been about an hour since we left that the beasts came into view. They were black, about the size of a lion, and looked like komodo dragons. On their backs they had bony wings that looked barely large enough to sustain flight. Altogether there were about 50 or so of them writhing in a large mass, intertwining like a young couple of newlyweds. It was a large nest. A normal adventurer would surely need to pick off stragglers or try to bait them out one at a time. Thankfully, we weren’t normal adventurers.
From Benson’s shoulder I held out my staff and forced mana through it, activating the runes and enchantments. Immediately a powerful fork of lightning erupted and struck into the writhing mass, causing the lizards to cry out with terrific wails. I could feel the hair on my forearm standing on end. The flash had caused me to wince. I wasn’t sure if the sound echoing in my skull was thunder or the blast from the strike.
A blue glow encompassed the pit as smoke began to billow upwards, coating the sky in its smog. I climbed down from Benson’s shoulder and he rushed forward; drawing his blade in one motion he slayed the survivors with the finesse of a master. The monsters’ black blood sprayed about like seafoam crashing against the shore.
It was different from Xternity. It was visceral and real. It was gritty and bleak. Benson didn’t hesitate, despite this. I wouldn’t have either, but I found myself gaping in awe of it all.
As the lion-man’s sword cut through the skull of the last living beast, I made my way forward to help with the dismantling. We only needed the items from 5, so I started storing the full bodies in my [inventory]. When only five were left, I took a knife out and started cutting into them.
Memories of dismantling techniques filled my mind. I had killed and cleaned monsters in Xternity, but it had never been this… Dirty. It had never been this raw. Black blood steamed as it was exposed to the air. I hardened myself as I moved forward and did what needed to be done.
With five wyvern cores in hand, I stored the five partially opened bodies into my inventory. My armor had a few black stains on it. Benson’s was unmarred.
The wyvern cores were purple in color and felt cold to the touch. I found a nearby stream and washed them and my hands clean. The stains in my armor would clean themselves out in time because of its enchantments.
The cores themselves, now that they were clean, were astounding to look at. A spinning pattern reminiscent of galaxy spirals displayed itself and they gleamed in the glittering sunlight that etched itself through the canopy above.
Our mission accomplished, Benson and I decided to waste a few hours collecting herbs and other ingredients from the forest itself. We were near the great swamp in the northern side of the Thrush called The Mire, and good plants seemed to grow here. The monsters were, as well, only around level 20-30 at the highest.
We didn’t want to return to the town so quickly. Even if we finished the job already, it wouldn’t do well to catch too much attention. It was probably best if we waited long enough for most of the Adventurer teams that were there in the morning to clear out before we head back. Rumors would start, no doubt, but in small towns rumors will always loudly echo from mouth to mouth. It was best if we established ourselves as powerful, anyways.
If news circulated out that a powerful Artisan, able to make amazing armors that let a girl and a single bodyguard hunt wyverns and other ‘strong beasts’, was hanging around in Golden Thrush, surely someone from the crafting professions would come to investigate.
I estimated about 2 weeks for the information to reach Farrier. From there it would take another month to spread to Hidet and New Hidet.
That meant, in two months time, the the investigators would surely come looking. Two months is plenty of time to get my name known. It was all for the sake of getting home, after all. I don't have much reason to stay in this world. I may enjoy Benson and Tenia's company, but I don't truly know them. I don't know who or even what they are, in the end. My heart was crying for home. I wanted to see my mother's smile again. I wanted to hear James's over excited voice. This world is fantastic, even dreamlike... But I wasn't someone pathetic before. I had a life, and I want it back.