“Why the heck do we have to have our first quest be rats? I am scared of rats, you know this, Nyx. Mice are cute and cuddly, but rats are disgusting and horrible. We live in New York, so you know how crazy the rats are here.”

The Duo has been walking towards where the client was for a few minutes after they left the guild. Nyx sighed as he heard Rose rant about rats nonstop. She had a point about rats. They were gross creatures that usually carried many diseases. In fact, the last pandemic was caused by them. It wasn't as bad as other pandemics in the past.

"Well, Rose, we could just have Snow hunt the rats while we do the other chores. That way we can clean up the yard and not deal with any rats at all. While she can get some experience hunting. After all, she needs to start somewhere, and this is a good start.”

She paused in her rant and thought about the idea, and then she smiled. He solved that problem. That's good because he couldn't have another six-hour rant like in the past. One of the cats at the ranch caught a rat and brought it to Rose to see what it had hunted. She freaked out for a whole week, and every day for that week she had a six-hour rant about how disgusting rats are. She is fine with rats that people keep as pets, but not wild rats, especially in New York.

He wondered maybe she had a past trauma involving rats. Anytime he brought this up to Rose’s Mom, she would give him a serious look and tell me not to ask about it. So, yeah, he was not going to push his luck and tease her about rats. He hopes to every god in this game that he never gets a rat as a summon or Rose will try to kill it every day. If he does get a rat, then it better be a Pikachu or something cute she can love.

The Duo continued towards the client who was named Edward White. They hoped Mr. White would provide them with tools to help them finish the job as fast as possible. If not, they can use their skills and think of it as training them. They finally reached their destination. It was a cottage that seemed to be very old but kept in good shape due to maintenance. They saw an old man waiting on the front porch with a cane next to him and what looked to be a glass of beer sitting. He looked at them and walked up towards the house and got up with a smile on his face and walked towards them slowly.

"Well, hello there, lad, are you the adventurers that will be helping me take care of my backyard? I remember I put in three job requests so I can get it all cleaned up. I am too old currently, and my back can’t take that much labour.” Mr Edward looked at Snow. He reached into his pocket and took out some beef jerky while petting her with a smile on his face. ”What a cute little one. It reminds me of when I had a puppy when I was little. It went on adventures with me."

Nyx smiled as he saw the old man having fun with Snow. He enjoyed talking with old people. He used to take puppies to hospitals and retirement homes to make old folks feel better and less lonely. "Well, sir, you are right. We are here to take care of your backyard." We hope maybe you have some tools that we could use so we can work as fast as possible and get this yard into shape. Snow here will be hunting the rats as she is pretty strong and deadly. Also, if you need any help moving anything inside, please let us know and we can help.”

“Well, aren’t you a nice lad. I will make sure to tell the Guild I am in very good hands then I appreciate the offer for the help but I am not kicking the bucket yet. Also, there is a shed near the gate of the backyard. There, magic tools are enchanted with wind magic to help cut the grass better. Also, there should be a wheelbarrow where you can use it to carry the rocks and place them at the river nearby. Each job you complete will be 25 bronze coins, so in total it would be 75 for all the jobs. If you do a good job, I will make it 80, and the gate to the background is unlocked. Good luck and Happy hunting, lad and lass.”

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Quest:

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An old man needs help. He needs you to clear his backyard. It has lots of rocks, grass, and rats that need to be killed. Do you wish to take on this Quest?

Tasks:

Kill 0/25 rats

Pick up 0/50 Rocks.

Cut 0/300 Grass blades.

Rewards:

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80 Bronze Coins

600 XP (200 for Each Task)

Reputation with Mr White

Reputation with the Guild and Possible Rank Up

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Do you accept this quest?

Y/N

Nyx looked at the Quest pop-up and smiled. He was excited to finally be on his first quest and be able to rank up. He looked back at Rose, who seemed to have gotten the same quest as well since they were in a party, after all, it makes sense. The duo both accepted the quest and waved Mr. White off as he went to go back and relax on the porch. Rose and Nyx walked towards the back of the house and saw a gate and a shed next to the entrance. The gate was made of wood and looked out of place, since the fence looked much older than it. He realized that Mr. White must've gotten it replaced. Rose opened the gate while Nyx went to get the tools in the shed.

He looked in the old shed. He saw two pairs of farm sickles with strange glowing runes. There were a lot of other tools like hammers and screwdrivers in here as well. Also, there were four pairs of gloves on the table near the sickles as well. He smiled at the gloves being there, as he did not want to be touching dead rats with his hand. He wondered if there were diseases and if you could get sick in this game, but he was not going to test that. As he was gathering the tools and bringing them outside, he heard Rose yelling at him.

“Nyx! There is a lot of grass. I hope you found the tools in the shed because we will definitely need them! Also, I think Snow needs a bath after this. The rats seem to be underground. She has to dig down to get them.” He walked over to the front gate to see what she was talking about. He saw lots of grass everywhere. Medium rocks were littered about. Snow was chasing rats across the yard.

"Shit, you were right Rose rats are the worst,” he said with a deadpan look on his face. Yeah, this was going to take a while.