Chapter 10: My First Quest!

CHAPTER 10

Illenna said that she will be around while I go into the center and finish the registration. It didn’t escape my notice that there were more people crowding the streets than when I initially arrived here. High officials, guards and what I assumed were independent adventurers all flowed from one building to another and from one street to the next almost in a practiced harmony. As I was entering the Questing Center building I bumped into something and felt myself almost lose balance for an instant.

“Whoa, watch out there.” I heard a voice.

I looked up at a tall young man standing in front of me. He was wearing blue polished armor and had a giant sword strapped over his back. Really, there were people like this here? How was he even wielding such a weapon? I was a little taken aback by the sheer size of the guy. He had light short hair and was looking down on me with a soft smile.

“Apologize to him, can you not speak?” a young girl standing behind the man pushed her way through and was squinting at me.

I only then noticed that there was quite the crowd around him, three girls including the one speaking to me and three other men were in the company of this giant sword-wielding man.

“I…” I stammered overwhelmed by the large audience whose eyes were all turned to me.

“It’s okay Dena, it is my fault too, I should have been more careful.” The man laughed.

His easygoing attitude helped me relax a little, enough to muster an apology at least.

“I am sorry, I really didn’t see you there.” I said at last.

“No worries, if we both forgive each other we can easily move on from this.” He gave me the brightest smile I’ve ever seen. It was hard to be mad at the guy.

“You’re forgiven.” I said with a smile.

“What’s with this attitude,” the same girl continued, “I really don’t like this guy.”

“Dena, let him handle it,” another girl from the party pulled Dena aside.

“I’m glad to hear that, you are forgiven too.” The man said, unlike the girl he did not seem remotely offended. “I would love to stay here but we are in a hurry of sorts, just accepted a new quest.”

He explained pointing at one of the guys next to him who was holding a rolled up piece of paper.

“Right, I’ll let you be on your way then.” I moved aside while they walked by and Dena gave me a nasty side-eye.

“But before that,” I continued, “is it too much to ask for a name?”

“Andric,” the man said, turning to me. “And yours?”

“I am Oren,”

“Nice to meet you Oren, I hope we cross paths in the future.”

“Likewise and good luck on your quest.” I said.

The prospect of accepting a quest seemed more exciting than ever to me. I entered the building and noticed the polished floors of white marble and large chandeliers hanging from the ceilings. The desks were all made of shining wood and everything seemed neatly and properly arranged. It almost resembled a modern hotel lobby, an expensive one at that. All the workers here wore blue tailored coats and most of them wore large circular spectacles. Adventurers with all sorts of weapons and outfits came in and out of the building.

“Over here,” a young lady sitting at one of the desks called out to me as soon as I arrived.

I walked over and nodded in greeting.

“Good day sir, how may I help you today.” She said.

“I am looking to accept a quest.”

“Certainly, may I see your Questing Pass?”

“Um I don’t think I have one, I came here to get registered as well.” I explained.

“Oh but of course, why didn’t you say so.” She said bringing up a large tome bound in red leather from underneath her desk. She placed the book in front of her and flipped through the pages.

“Here we are, I will need your name and your age first.” She said.

“My name is Oren…” I thought about it for a second, attaching any last name to me felt wrong for some reason “just Oren, I hope that’s alright.”

“Yes of course, not a problem at all, Mister Oren.” The clerk said scribbling down in her book.

“And I am 23 years old.”

I hoped that the age system in this world was no different from the one on Earth and the lack of any reaction from the clerk led me to believe that it was indeed so.

“I see, very nice,” she said as she continued jotting down. “What is your specialty?”

“Excuse me?” I looked at her in confusion.

“Your specialty sir, are you a magic user, a weapon wieldier, a martial artist.” She explained.

“Well, it seems I’m quite good with a dagger.” I said.

“That’s good enough for me. We are almost done, I’m just going to ask you for your fingerprint right here.” She said as she opened a small cask containing dark blue liquid next to her and turned the red tome to me.

In the lines there I saw the information that she just asked me about and right next to it was a small designated box. I dipped my thumb in the cask and pressed it into the box, leaving the imprint there.

“Wonderful, all that remains now is the registration fee, which will be three silver coins.” She explained with a kind smile.

“This is embarrassing, but I… I don’t have any coin at the moment with me.” I explained rubbing the back of my neck.

“Oh no worries, that is not embarrassing at all sir, you can always choose the option of paying for the fee after your first quest.”

“Is that possible?”

“Of course it is, we are very understandable and try to accommodate our customers as much as possible.” She said.

“That’s good, and I promise to pay for it as soon as possible, I won’t run away or anything.” I said, it sounded like something a scammer would say but I really meant those words.

“Of course not sir, we have your fingerprint after all.” She said wiggling the red book in her hands.

I didn’t understand the meaning behind her words so I just smiled and nodded.

“I will be right back,” she said and walked off to the back of the building.

I waited for a few minutes as I watched other adventurers going about their business. Some of them, like the man from earlier, seemed quite trustworthy with expensive polished armor and finely crafted weapons while others were more similar to the bandits we encountered in the forest. I wondered which of the two types I was closer to at that moment. As I was pondering over it the young clerk returned with a few pieces of parchment and what seemed to be some sort of necklace.

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“Congratulations, mister Oren, your registration is complete.” She handed me the necklace.

It was made of links that seemed to be made from some cheap metal, brass or copper and around it was a small wooden tablet with a fingerprint chiseled into it. Was it my fingerprint, it seemed impossible how would they manage to do this in such a short time? But then again magic was real so anything was possible.

As soon as I put the necklace around my neck, the system was heard.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the questing system. The system will now be capable of offering you quests.]

That was all the information I got. I couldn’t question it further since the clerk spread out five different papers in front of me.

“I have handpicked a few quests that I think would be most suitable for your first venture with us. And don’t worry I made sure that the reward for all of them is at least three silver coins.” She said with a wink. “Feel free to choose the one most suitable for you.”

I perused the contents of the papers in silence. Each paper contained information on a different quest. Looking over the papers I couldn’t help but notice that most of these so called quests were nothing more than blue milk runs. “Gather a bouquet of lily-of-the-valleys for Madame Sosotris” “Find a lost cat with a heart shaped mark around her eye” “Clean up the neglected temple of the Ancient Firouse”, this one seemed somewhat intriguing, the aspect of getting to learn some history at least but my eyes were set on a different quest.

“Explore the sudden emergence of frogs and ravens in the village of Tobermory.”

This one seemed the most interesting, with the reward prize of four silver coins. I didn’t know what would be the requirements to consider this quest as complete since the instructions only said to explore this strange phenomenon but I suppose it was too early to think about it.

The description of the quest did not offer any detailed information, simply explaining how recently around and inside the village there has been an increase in frogs jumping about and ravens flying around, it sounded silly but this was the best I had to work with at the moment. It also mentioned that the quest was submitted by Master Farlan, the village chief.

“I will take this one.” I pointed at the paper at last.

“Very well,” she said as she wrote down something next to my name inside the book, “Whenever you are ready feel free to depart for the Tobermory village and if you need any additional help or information, don’t hesitate to contact the village representative there. I wish you the best of luck on your first quest and all the quests that come after this one, sir.”

I thanked the clerk for being so helpful and folding the quest parchment and storing it in my pocket I went out of the building. I was starting to regret my decisions, I didn’t even think about the fact that I have to go to another village now, a village that might be too far for me. And there was another glaring problem, there was no way I could embark on a quest without a weapon, even if that quest was gathering some lilies-of –the-valley. I missed the feel of my dagger already.

The heaviness on my back came as a sudden reminder. The skin and fangs of the sea serpent I got earlier today were still with me and I remembered Meili suggesting selling them. I looked around for Illenna and spotted her in the crowd, chatting with some merchants. She also noticed me and came over.

“So?”

“It’s done, I got my first quest.” I said, showing off the necklace.

“That’s wonderful, congratulations. What’s the quest, if I may ask?”

“I have to explore some mystery in…Tobermory village I think it was.” I explained.

“Oh Tobermory, that’s not too far from here.” She said.

“It’s not? I was worried about that; anything is too far for me unless I can get to it with a light sprint.”

She laughed.

“I don’t think it’s that close, you’re still going to need a horse or a carriage, in which case you would reach the village as soon as tomorrow morning.”

“Well I assume I’m going to have to pay for such services and since I’m a little short on coins I will need your help with one more thing. Here in my backpack I have some remains of a sea serpent. Do you know any place where I can sell it?”

“What pieces of the creature do you have exactly?” she asked.

“The hide and fangs,”

“Hmm, perhaps the armorer down the street would be interested in that.” Illenna said, resting her hands on her hips. “Well might as well give it a try, come along.”

We walked through the crowds before reaching a small shop, in the front was a large sign that read “Sun Chariot”. Loud clicking noises were heard from inside before Illenna knocked at the door.

“Yes, who is it?” We heard a deep rumble from inside the store.

“Customers,” Illenna called back.

“Come on in,” the voice replied.

We pushed the doors open and went inside. The place was hot, the heat most likely caused by a burning furnace at the end of the room. There were several tables across the room, with all sorts of tools scattered around, pliers, keys, hammers as well as a bunch of different equipment I have never seen before.

At one of the tables was the man who invited us in, he was working on some piece of cloth, stitching the edges together and evening out some parts with the beating of the hammer.

“Good day, how may I help you?” he asked.

“Good day, sorry for the interruption, I have some material here and thought that maybe you would be interested in taking a look.” I said petting the rucksack.

The man pushed the project he was working on to the side and wiped his hands on a brown leather apron he was wearing. He had a short beard and a piece of cloth tied around his head. He was also quite muscular and seemed to be in his forties at least.

“What kind of material, let me see.” He said coming closer.

I opened the rucksack and spilled the contents onto one of the emptier tables. The skin and the fangs of the sea serpent flopped onto the wood.

“Pardon me,” the armorer said as he probed the skin with his fingers and tried its elasticity by stretching it lightly, watching him do this made my queasiness return.

“Not bad,” he continued, “the hide of a sea serpent Minoris, whoever skinned it, did a bit of a rough job since the skin is a little damaged but still usable to be sure; high quality too. I might be interested in buying this. How much is it?”

“How much are you offering?” I asked.

“The skin of a sea serpent is perfect for creating belts and shoes. The blue almost translucent glow makes it one of the most popular fabrics these days. I am willing to take all of the skin for five silver pieces.” He said.

Five silver pieces? Already more than the promised quest reward, not bad at all. But still I couldn’t seal the deal without some haggling.

“Did I tell you I killed this thing myself?” I began “I was out for a swim when this thing came out of nowhere and lunged at me with its fangs. Luckily I had my blade at hand. Don’t you think I deserve a little more for my troubles, say, eight silver pieces perhaps.”

“Absolutely not,” the armorer fumed, “it’s not worth that much, and six is as high as I could go.”

“And also if I ever hunt down more of these things, which is likely to happen since I am an adventurer, your door will be the first one I knock on. So how about we seal the beginning of this partnership with seven silver coins, what say you?” I smiled.

“Damn you, fine, seven silver coins it is.” The armorer finally gave up as he went to the back of his shop and retrieved seven silver pieces which he handed to me.

“And what about the fangs?” I continued.

“There’s nothing I can do with them, try going to one of the artisans, they use fangs for necklaces.” The armorer was kind enough to advise me.

“Alright, thank you for your cooperation, it was lovely trading with you.” I said putting away my coins. My first earning in this world, it felt really nice.

“Yes, yes, thank you as well. Now leave me to my work if you will.”

We bid our farewells and left the shop.

“That was impressive,” Illenna said to me as soon as we walked out, “I didn’t know you were that kind of guy.”

“What kind of guy?” I asked.

“I don’t know, it’s just, at first you seemed very quiet and shy but just now you completely led the flow of that transaction, maybe I should be more wary of you.” Illenna said playfully.

“It’s not like that, I was just fighting for what I thought I deserved.” I replied.

I ended up visiting the few artisans who had set up stalls along the streets until I finally managed to sell off the set of sea serpent teeth for as much as three silver pieces. Although the prospect of going around and selling off random items seemed to procure more money than doing quests seemed peculiar at first, upon dwelling on it further I realized that the quests that I was offered required minimum skill or effort. Of course the parts of a slain sea monster would yield more coin than cleaning some run-down temple. But if it was for money I wouldn’t hesitate to do both.

“That was quite productive.” I said, counting all the coins once more. Ten silver coins already, if I keep this up I will be swimming in money in no time.

“It was more than productive, I feel like this shouldn’t be legal, let me see if there are any guards around so I can report this.” Illenna jested.

“Please do, I might make some profit off them too.” I said.

“I am not writing this off as a mere jest at this point. But anyway what do you plan to do with your newly acquired wealth; you’re going to buy me a drink?”

“I would love to and I will, it will be the perfect way to celebrate my first completed quest, but for now I’m afraid I need the money to buy a new weapon and pay for the transport to the village.” I said.

“Fine, that works for me. In fact, take this,” she rummaged through the pocket of her dress and pulled out two coins of silver.

“This, I can’t accept it…”

“Sure you can, it’s my investment in a bright future, just don’t forget me when you get there, alright?” she winked at me.

“I…thank you, I won’t forget this.”

I was shocked by all the kind people I was lucky enough to run into, it seemed like this world only consisted of good people is what I wanted to say but then I remembered the knight with the black helmet and Arrin and his bandits so I decided to reconsider that sentiment.

To briefly explain the following events, I visited a few merchant weapons until I finally settled my eyes on a beautiful dagger with a blade of gray and black which I ended up buying for seven silver coins. I considered this a worthy investment. I also managed to find a carriage that would take me to Tobermory village for another four silvers. I bid my farewell to Illenna, thanking her for the help and with that I got into the carriage and thus I was headed for the village in order to tackle my first quest in this new world of wonder.