B1 Chapter 13 - Meeting the Adventurers

Dawn was standing next to me, watching as I clicked my abacus. “Medicinal herbs, that will be one thousand geld,” I said. Dawn told me she’d tap me if I made a mistake. No tap meant to proceed with the payment. I handed the coins over to him as he smiled.

“You’re the cute new girl, what’s your name?” he asked. I saw his adventurer card, but I didn’t make a note of remembering it. He was only a rank four.

“Move on, loverboy,” Dawn said.

He grimaced before doing just that.

I raised my hand, waving at the next person in line. “Ready.”

This guy was bigger with three swords, one on each hip and a larger one on his back. He handed me his guild card. Oliver. Rank six. This is worth remembering. Not surprisingly, he was registered as a fighter class, oh, and part of a team. The swords of twilight. All warriors, maybe?

“Welcome, Oliver, what can I do for you today?” I asked.

“Got a few dire wolf cores,” he said, placing apple-sized cores in front of me.

I grabbed them to look. Dawn told me the main thing to look for was noticeable cracks or signs of weakness or damage. They looked good to me. Though one thing felt odd. “Just the cores? No meat or fur?”

“They are old hunts. Dipping into my savings. Though on that note. Any good jobs right now?” he asked.

“There are rumors of an oni in the area, but that may be a bit much for you,” I said. Oni were core seven after all.

“Rubbish,” he said. “I have lived here all my life, the only core sevens we get are leshies, and we haven’t had one of those in almost a decade.”

“You think they mistook a leshy for an oni?” I asked. “Fifteen thousand geld for the three dire wolf cores.”

“Damn dumb of them if they did,” he said. “Though I may take a look. Me and the boys could use a payday like a leshy. Thanks, new girl.”

I gave a curtsy.

“Good work,” Dawn said. “Knowing Oliver, he will be drunk in the bar later and forget the idea of fighting a leshy, probably for the best. He is what we call Captain Core Five. He may have a rank six, but he earned it a long time ago. He doesn’t do missions outside of rank five nowadays. Even with his boys.”

“So, Captain Core means the rank they actually seem to be, indifferent to their true rank?” I asked.

“Only when it is lower, otherwise they are an upstart core,” Dawn added.

I waved the following gentlemen over. He pulled out a bag and emptied it. Tons of super tiny cores came out. Too many to count. They overflowed and fell onto my feet as well.

“What kind of cores are these?” I asked.

“Mostly slime, but a few horned rabbits and maybe one digger rat,” he said.

“Allen, why do you always hunt the babies? These cores are useless except for dust, and you know that,” Dawn said.

“Babies?” I asked.

“You only get cores this small with babies,” she added.

“Excuse me, I gotta use the bathroom,” I said as I ran out back to the outhouse. I climbed in, bent down, and began heaving. Babies? What the hell! Like, I understood hunting was a thing here, but hunting baby digger rats? Maybe slimes? I heaved again.

Ugh. This sucks. I hope I don’t see that guy ever again. I eventually made my way back to the counter.

“You okay?” Dawn asked.

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I nodded. “Yeah, just last night's dinner didn’t agree with me.”

“Happens. So, keep an eye out for Allen; he likes to bring the limit to baby cores we allow,” she said. “We restrict the hunting of babies because babies tend to be a more amateur thing.”

“So we do endorse hunting of baby monsters?” I asked.

She nodded. “We don’t do much with them, so they aren’t hot sellers. Usually we get teenagers or new adventurers fetching five or six for spare geld. Or maybe a real hunter just needs some geld to cover his rent, that will snag a couple. Allen is like the only guy who hunts that many. He is rank four too, so he has no excuse. He could be hunting the adults.”

At least there is only one guy like that.

The day went smoother after that. I got things as I was told to expect. I got a few teenagers who brought in more baby cores, but no more full-fledged adventurers. Plenty of herbs and plants were turned in. I liked those kinds of quests more.

Lots of people asked about guild quests and suggestions. Dawn complimented me, since I was trying to push for more gathering quests. Apparently, a lot of the newbie receptionists focused more on rank and what monsters were in that rank.

“Killing monsters is certainly a big part of guild work, and it does gain more geld, but it is a higher risk factor. And as yesterday was a reminder, the forest can be dangerous in general, even before you are looking for strong monsters.”

I nodded. It made sense. “Do we ever get escort quests?”

She shook her head. “Not really, we are out in the sticks. Not many people come or go from here. The advantage of being part of a small guild station.” She paused and placed a finger on her chin. “Well, we do get pickups, but those come with escorts for the return trip. I guess occasionally, we have been sent letters asking us to send things first, which requires us to hire an escort, but it is a rarity.”

An older lady came up to the desk. That was surprising, but I was curious what she was here for. “How may I help you?” I asked.

She handed me a guild card. Rank one. Oh, an apothecary class named Nina. “I’d like to put in a request for dragonfire weed, three pounds for three thousand geld.”

Okay, I started writing down details. We took a ten percent fee upon completion. So a quick tap of the abacus and I marked down twenty-seven hundred geld. I then calculated half of that sum. “We need thirteen hundred and fifty geld for that.”

She handed me coins. “Thanks again.”

“Again?” I asked, but she was already walking away.

“Her eyes are kind of bad. She probably didn’t recognize you as a new girl,” Dawn said. “So, what do you think of the job?”

“Good, though I'd rather not deal with monster parts,” I said.

Dawn laughed. “We can always put you on firewood chopping duty if you’d prefer.”

I smirked. “It would definitely make for a nice break.”

The guild master came in with a bit of a scowl. “Ugh, that woman.”

“Should-”

Dawn shook her head.

“Alexis, come with me, please,” he said.

Oh crap. I don’t think things like that were ever a good sign. “Yes sir,” I said as I followed.

He sat down, picked up the bracelet from before, and resumed wiping it down with a rag. We just stood there in silence for a few minutes before I decided to ask what was going on.

“Hmm? Oh, it’s this,” he said. “It is the wolf core from the other day. I am almost done with it.”

“So what are you doing with it?” I asked.

“Enchanting it,” he said.

My eyes went wide. “You can enchant crystal cores?”

He laughed, a big belly laugh. “You need crystal cores for enchantments. You didn’t know that?” He paused, grabbed a bucket, and dipped the core bracelet in it.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Magic dust, needed to finish the enchantment,” he said.

“So that is what magic dust is for?” I asked. “The other girls didn’t know.”

“Among other things,” he said. “And just one more trick.” He summoned fire in his hand, and it burned the bracelet. It was left sparking and turned a solid silver color. Wow. Real magic. Like I could use a bit, but I have never summoned fire before. I saw Nancy do it to start a fire, but how he wielded it felt majestic.

He then slid it on my wrist. “Nancy made me promise I would get this working for you before you went home. I take it you have never used a magic item before?”

“Yeah, never,” I said.

He grabbed a book and swung at me. I flinched, but a flash of light appeared, and he was pushed back.

“Magic barrier,” he said. “But, it isn’t perfect. It can’t stop everything. Also consumes chi. It needs to be refilled. Can you try to refill it?”

Chi. I knew the basic concept cuz it was needed to use magic. I let it flow a bit, and I noticed the bracelet glowed.

“Perfect. Don’t try to rely on it, but it should help,” he said. “You can go home for the night now.”

I bowed. “Thank you, sir.”