After Jeanette offered the adventurers free drinks for the night they went wild. Poor Owen, as the receptionist AND bartender he had quite the rough time. But before I could see hell break loose Jeanette asked me if I had a room at a tavern I could rest in. I said no and to this she answered that in the guild they had resting rooms in case an adventurer didn’t have the money to pay for a tavern. She offered me a bed to rest in and I accepted. She led me upstairs. The last thing I saw before going up was Owens pleading expression.

The resting room was devided in two separate parts, the female room and the male room. They were identical with 10 beds in each of them and one bathroom that had a bathtub in it. I got a bed in the female room of course. Everything in the room was in order and not one speck of dust could be seen. Jeanette then said I should go to bed before leaving the room.

I choose one of the beds and went to sleep, still fully clothed, dead tired. I said good night to Rowan and the others before falling asleep, despite the shouts of happieness coming from downstairs.

When I woke up the previously tidy room was in chaos. Dirty clothes laying everywhere, the bathtub overfull with water, causing a puddle to appear on the floor. Someone had carved a skull into the ceiling and a pile of books had been stacked similar to how you play with cards.

Other occupants had went to bed after I fell asleep. Five women were laying in their beds. Well, at least they intended to lay in bed. One, a dwarf, had fallen asleep halfway in bed and slept with her hed on the bed but still standing up. She was also snoring.

“Good morning mistress” Rowan greeted me.

((Good morning guys)) I answered. ((Man, they must have had one hell of party last night)).

“Bosss, you can’t even imagine!” Morgana said. “They partied until a few hoursss ago and jeez! We even heard some occasssional explosionsss! They ssang some really inappropriate songs too like one about how a man lossst hisss-”

“ENOUGH!” both me and Rowan shouted. I put my hands in front of my mouth. Luckily everyone was still asleep.

“Mama, what’s a ****?” Zar suddenly asked.

Rowan and I gasped while Morgana laughed like crazy. Zar remained clueless.

Slowly I got out of bed before silently walking towards the door. Heck, I don’t need to do that! I could use Death Scream right now and they wouldn’t flinch.

When I got out even more chaos awaited me. Not everyone had gotten to bed fast enough and people were laying asleep in the middle of the corridor. Arrows had been shot into walls and swords showed into tables. I wonder if Jeanettes repair magic or whatever can fix this? Probably.

Downstairs the chaos continued. But to my suprise Owen was still standing behind the reception disk, just like he had done before. It was as if nothing had happened. When he saw me he prepared a glass of that sweet, green juice. I took the glas, said thank you, and sat down besides the bar. I took a sip of the juice.

((Ok guys, how should we spend today?)) I asked.

“The best thing would be getting some quests done” Rowan answered.

“But nothing to difficult, better start out with ssome gathering questsss” Morgana commented.

((Yes, that is probably the best thing to start with)). I turned towards Owen.

“Mister Owen, I would like to do a quest. How do I do that?”

Owen pointed me towards a board that hanged in the opposite side of the room. I jumped down from the chair and ran towards it. The board was huge! Two meters high, three meters wide. It was covered in multiple different papers, all asking for help. Some where escort missions, others were asking for help with exterminating beasts of different kinds. They all had different rewards. But these were not the ones I looked for.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

My eyes searched the bord for a few seconds before I found what I wanted. A gathering quest.

Help wanted! In desperate need of mangleroots! 2 copper coins per root! When completed, bring them to Ienna the healer!

“Mistress, this seems like the perfect quest!”

((Yeah! And I think I know what a mangleroot is! I think Julia-sama used it in a stew once. When hacked into thin bits and boiled they get really tasty!))

I take down the quest paper and run towards Owen. I hand the paper to him.

“This is the quest! I want to participate!” I say exited. Owen stares at the paper for a second before nodding. From under the desk he pulls out a big book and a feather pencil. He writes something with red ink before it suddenly disappears.

“Huh? What was that?” I ask, confused like heck.

“That, my dear, is the quest log” a calm voice says behind me. I turn around and there stands Jeanette. She smiles. “Owen writes down your name and quest and it gets inprinted there magically. That shows that you accepted the quest and when you are done he will write the exact same thing again, clearing it. Until that is done you cannot accept any other quest”.

“Oh, that is really cool!” I exclaim. Jeanette gives me a warm smile.

“Yes, yes it is. But before you go out on your quest eat something. A hungry adventurer is a foolish adventurer”. She gives Owen a small nod and he starts to prepare some of that bread I ate yesterday togther with some dried meat. Jeanette gives me the package.

“I-I cannot possibly accept this! I n-need to pay you back-!” I stutter before Jeanette silences me.

“Shush dear. Think of this as a prayer from me to you in hope that you will become an succesful adventurer” she says while smiling.

I nod and stutter thanks before leaving the guild building. My heart is pounding. I am an adventurer. I really am. As I run through the city and towards the gates I embrace the package with food Jeanette gave me. I will make sure to repay her one day.

--------------------------------------------------------------

*Jeanettes POV*

As Ruth runs out the guild with the package in her arms I can’t help but smile. She is such a sweet child.

“Are you really fine with this?” Owen asks.

“What do you mean?” I ask back, trying to act ignorant.

“You would never accept a child that young as an adventurer without some kind of reason. That girl is special, and you know that, I can see it in your eyes”. I sigh. He knows me to well.

“I saw it. Her future that is” I answer before pausing. Only the shallow breaths of the sleeping adventurers can be heard.

“What did you see?”

I smile.

“I saw loneliness, madness, despair and sorrow. I saw death itself” I take a deep breath. “But I also saw hope. A ray of light flickering in an endless sea of darkness. I saw power, the power to stand up, to survive. And I saw kindness, bravery and honesty. That is what I saw”.

Owen doesn’t say anything but I know he understands. That girl, Ruth, is going to change the world.