Adrian grunted as he carefully laid down the now asleep Kayle on the ground. He sat on one of the logs around the campfire and looked at the extinguished fire. “Man, I’m beaten.” Adrian said while he stretched his arms.
“You are not the only one, my friend.” Axel responded after putting down the collapsed Aby. She didn’t look to have passed out from exhausting, just stress.
“Yeah, but what about us?” Dale sarcastically told as he dropped on a free log. “Mike and I had to move their staffs and a bag full of fucking mantis arms!”
“Don’t be a winner,” Adrian said. “You shared the weight, Axel and I had to carry human beings. You could tell your sister if she might be able to lose some weight, she’s heavier than it looks.” Adrian joked and the sighed.
“Well, at least we have the thirty mantises’ scythes,” Mike commented with positivity. “That’s one quest out of the list.”
“Two actually,” Adrian added. “I only need to notify the guild and the lair one will be completed. Give a minute to rest and I will go back to Czecheri so we can get some food.”
“What about me and Aby?” Dale asked Adrian. “Shouldn’t we go so we can become official adventurers?”
“Don’t worry.” Adrian soothed him. “I foresee that will only happen after the lair quest is revised by a guild officer.” Adrian felt awfully thirsty after talking so he took a sip from the river. “Jesus-fucking-Christ that water’s freezing.”
“Should we start the fire again?” Mike asked.
The Time Weaver used his favorite [Title] to check the time: 5:21 p.m. “It’s still early,” Adrian answered. “Wait after I’m gone.” Then he looked at the two sleeping beauties. “Nah, now that I think it twice, yeah, you should ignite it. They will be better if they woke up with a cozy fire.” He said while looking at the girls.
“I was thinking that too.” Axel said and promptly stood up to harvest some dry wood. He did not even take a rest.
‘Unrelenting as you show’, Adrian though, and sat once again. Maybe it was his natural physique or the [Constituta], but Adrian couldn’t follow Axel’s pace. He was tired after all of that. Some part was physical, but most was mental. Stress. He only needed a short rest and he would spring once again towards the walled city. Adrian waited till Axel came back and lighted the fire.
At mid-way from Czecheri, Adrian wished a mantis would appear so he could kill it and obtain that sweet speed boost. That was foolish, and he knew it, only a twenty-second 5% boost wasn’t worth it. Not even considering the absurd stamina consumption that was the first kill of [Rampage]. Still, being faster than before had worn off a bit of his patience. He wanted to be even faster. It would be awesome if [Time Dilation II] affected him.
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Changing his time perception had done the trick, though. He saluted the guards and walked directly to the guild building. No distractions whatsoever, even if he saw an uncanny number of bards at the plaza.
Adrian stepped inside the guild. The place had a queue, as always. It didn’t matter when he came, there would always be someone at the line. He hadn’t deactivated his accelerated time perception and only did so after it was his turn.
“You work here every day, every hour?” Adrian asked the acquaintance female officer.
“Only when you come, looks like.” She followed his joked. It seemed that she was in less bad humor now. “Did you complete the mission?”
“Yes.” He simply stated.
“That was fast.” The guild officer replied.
“I had my wannabe adventurers, didn’t I?” Adrian said as he wiggled the thirty mantis arms that he put on the food sac.
“Are they alright?” She asked. It did not seem it was because she was worried, but she was being professional.
“O, yes. They are safe.” Adrian told her. “They are resting at the moment. I will come back tomorrow with them to collect the lair reward.”
“If you already did it,” The officer spoke with doubt but proceeded either way. “You should come in the afternoon. Guild field officers take their time.”
“Will do.” Adrian responded with a smile and then passed the mantis extermination quest paper to her.
The officer got out of her desk and went to the linen mantle where Adrian dropped the scythes. “Well, that’s all of them.” She stated after counting them. “Here you have.” The guild officer gave six big copper coins to Adrian. “Next!”
After he was kicked out by the woman at the desk, Adrian looked at the quest board. There were quests that seemed easy like herb collecting, but he did not have any experience with the flora of Mundompio. He decided to take an extermination quest. Not a fancy one, only ten mantises for five copper. The reward was trash, but there wasn’t any more mantis related quest at the moment, and he didn’t want to pick up a different type while the party wasn’t at Czecheri.
Instead of going to the guild sponsored shop, Adrian directed to a place that looked like a tavern. Judging by the number of floors and the name ‘The Mean Mussel’, he thought it could also be an inn.
He entered the place without any expectations. He knew Czecheri was like a medieval town, so he definitely won’t be seeing any spectacular fantastical tavern. As expected, the place was made of pure wood. Drunkards drinking at benches and some of them eating. There was a second floor, a steep staircase that directed to another place filled with more people drowning in beer. As he saw no doors on the second floor, Adrian discarded the possibility of this place to be an inn.
“How much for a jar?” He asked the man at the bar. The muscled man raised one finger. ‘A copper?’ Adrian thought. He didn’t know if that was cheap or not. Considering that a two-day ‘meal’ was worth five coppers, it was maybe too much. But after seeing the size of those jars, it could be worth its price. “Do you have change?”
“An adventurer?” The man talked.
“Yes, how do you know?” Adrian asked the bartender.
“Ignoring the fact that you are armed,” The man stated with solid facts as no one else had a weapon. At least no one on Adrian’s field of view. “Those guys at the guild tend to pay with great coppers. I still don't know why.”
‘Great coppers, noted.’ Adrian would stop calling them big copper coins in his head. “Give me one.” And then tossed a great copper to the man.
Promptly, Adrian got a big jar filled with beer and his four copper, then he drunk. ‘Oh, fuck. This shit ain’t worth its price.’ He reflected on his decisions as the beer tasted horrible. But alcohol was alcohol, and he wanted to leech the price of that drink.